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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 1 Hansard (2 February) . . Page.. 5 ..

MR QUINLAN (continuing):

less tax. So they can avoid some tax. And guess what? It comes to the Government because it earns interest on that money tax free. Now, if you have a problem with that, ask Mr Lilley. I tipped him that wink about a week or so ago and I am sure he has worked through it for you.

Ms Carnell: It did not take much working through.

MR QUINLAN: Right. We now know that if we take $400m out of ACTEW we get an extra $9m in government coffers. Not bad, eh?

Ms Carnell: Not if you are taking 100 per cent dividend.

MR QUINLAN: Right. I think the committee has done an outstanding job given the time that it has had to put together alternative models. Up to a few working days ago we were still receiving consultants' figures that did not add up. The beginning balance, earnings, payments and closing balance were incorrect as recently as Wednesday. We were still ironing out numbers. The AGA appeared before the committee and also communicated that they had had problems, quite reasonably, I think, because the timeframe for this committee was almost impossible. There is no-one to blame for this, other than the fact that the committee was jammed for time and the inquiry was to run over the Christmas and New Year break.

Clearly, there is an alternative. That alternative includes the retention of ACTEW in public hands, the employment of its capital worth without blowing it, a positive approach to the management of it, and the minimisation of risk associated with paper investment. (Extension of time granted)

There is included in the report considerable discussion on downstream consequential losses from the disposal of ACTEW, but I guess the primary ones distil to the fear of job losses and the loss of economic activity that is associated with having our ACTEW in our city. You only have to look at ACTEW's home page. Mr Alan Morrison, who is here today, informs us that ACTEW does $40m to $50m worth of business in Canberra. I think it goes on to say that it employs the sons and daughters of Canberra. I think that is a very important message and I thank Mr Morrison for encapsulating it so well.

Claims that the sale of ACTEW to some outside owner will give rise to growth within the Territory that will benefit the Territory are not very credible. If ACTEW is owned elsewhere and gains markets elsewhere it will be making money elsewhere and keeping it elsewhere, and there will be nothing in that for Canberra.

In closing, let me say that the committee does not wish to be seen as understating the problem of the seriousness of the superannuation liability that we face, but the case for selling ACTEW to solve it after a million dollars worth of consultants' fees is half-baked. The suite of consultants' reports has not provided a complete picture. The message has been that we need to sell it and here are the scare tactics to push us towards it. This committee - the majority of this committee, at least - subscribes to that quaint notion of listening to the will of the people, having sufficient respect for them and telling them the facts, all of the facts, as might have been done before the last election took place less than a year ago.

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