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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 1 Hansard (2 February) . . Page.. 2 ..

MR QUINLAN (10.34): Mr Speaker, pursuant to order, I present the report of the Select Committee on the Territory's Superannuation Commitments, including a dissenting report, together with the minutes of the proceedings. This report was provided to the Acting Speaker for circulation on Saturday, 30 January 1999, pursuant to the resolution of the Assembly of 10 December 1998. I move:

That the report be noted.

Mr Speaker, this is a majority report, plus a dissenting report from Mr Hird. It is my pleasant duty to inform the Assembly that members can look forward to a very erudite dissension from Mr Hird, a dissension that, quite obviously, has been the model for the Government's objection. To the eternal discredit of some of us on the committee, we did show some scepticism for a brief while, but we have been thoroughly assured that Mr Hird prepared his dissension last Friday evening by his own hand.

We have taken notice of Mrs Carnell's very great concern, in that she called Mr Rugendyke to ensure that he had not received a copy of the draft report, as that would be a breach of privilege. We thoroughly agree with those concerns.

I have to say that, if Mr Hird wishes to pursue a career after politics, there is every indication that he has the writing qualities of a chief of staff for a Chief Minister. Mr Ian Wearing should stay on his toes, although I have to observe that Mr Wearing is very dedicated and he spent a considerable part of his weekend in this place. I invite Mr Hird to share with this Assembly a detailed expansion upon his dissenting report because it effectively gainsays the whole report. It is very adamant in its opinions. It is bold and it accuses me of ignorance and bias on more than one occasion. It is very peculiar that none of these particular claims arose during committee deliberations, and I have to say that they were conducted quite free of any acrimony. As I said, I cannot overstress the anticipation of the delivery of Mr Hird's dissension.

Turning to the report: In relation to term of reference No. 1, the adequacy of the Towers Perrin reports, the committee engaged the Australian Government Actuary to conduct an independent review, and we thank them for their efforts in getting information from Towers Perrin. The Australian Government Actuary's report clearly and unequivocally stated that figures used by the Government could be overstated. After discussions with the Under Treasurer, Mr Lilley - a busy chap, who I think quite rightly was concerned about his professional standing, and this is very refreshing to see - I understand that the Australian Government Actuary said that the figures were okay, for accounting purposes. He said - - -

Ms Carnell: No; he said they were right. No; he did not put that in. You put that in.

MR QUINLAN: It is in his letter, is it not?

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