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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 1 Hansard (2 February) . . Page.. 46 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

Just as importantly, what impact does the slashing of trades staff have on the provision of reliable, safe and environmentally responsible utility services? There is no regulatory regime in place to guard the provision of electricity, water and sewerage services to the Canberra community. The Government, as we all know, has declined to have the regime in place before it moves today to sell ACTEW. What guarantees, in the face of this experience, does Canberra have that the Auckland or Queensland blackouts, the Sydney water contamination or the Victorian gas crisis will not be replicated here? What guarantee is there that the recent British experience, where the French operated water supplier could not supply sufficient domestic water, despite the absence of drought, will not be replicated in Canberra? The Government's response is that some of these examples occurred not in privately owned utilities but in publicly owned organisations. Mr Speaker, again, the Government misses the point or seeks to make a point from misinformation. The point of concern should be in the employment figures that show that when utilities are privatised jobs go. In privately operated utilities, jobs go in areas responsible for maintenance and supply.

Mr Speaker, the Government has steadfastly maintained that there is one pressing need that forces it to sell ACTEW, the need to find some way of addressing the Territory's unfunded superannuation liability. Labor does not deny the existence of the liability, the impact that it will have on the ACT's financial affairs over years to come or the need to find a solution to the problem. But the experience of observing the operations over the last four years of this Government, and the last 12 months in particular, has taught us to look carefully at positions put so earnestly to the community by the Government through the Chief Minister. This is the Chief Minister, after all, who in her first budget cut $19m, unannounced, from the Superannuation Provision Trust Account. This is the Chief Minister who argued, in her first budget, that the long-term superannuation liability could be met in the future from real surpluses, yet she has presided over a 1997-98 budget that has seen the operating loss grow as a result of an additional $61m of expenditure over the previous years.

This is, of course, consistent with the lack of performance of the Chief Minister as Treasurer over the last four years. This is also precisely why Labor argued the need for the Assembly to examine the issue and negotiated the establishment of the superannuation select committee. We have learnt to take with a grain of salt the Government's breathless exhortations to adopt particular positions. And, of course, we have heard today the committee's view of the Government's insistence that the only viable option to address the problem is a one-off solution funded by the Territory's largest asset. The assertion is a palpable nonsense. Not only is the Government's proposed solution a nonsense but it appears, yet again, that the extent of the problem may have been grossly overstated. No less an authority than the Australian Government Actuary has seriously questioned the Government's assessment of the liability.

There is, of course, still a problem that needs to be addressed. Even the Government understood that and in its normal fashion commissioned a consultant to propose a range of solutions. But, again, in its normal fashion, the Government chose one option from the range of options, a one-off short-term gain, a big hit - sell ACTEW. The Government never sought to analyse or assess the other options. I do not need to say more about the efficacy of the range of options. Mr Quinlan's superannuation committee has comprehensively put the sword to the Government's one and only option.

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