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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 5 Hansard (5 May) . . Page.. 1362 ..

MS CARNELL (continuing):

be borrowed by ACTEW. That money will be transferred across and put into the superannuation provision account in line with the recommendation of Mr Quinlan's own committee, Mr Speaker.

Mr Quinlan: No, I am not worried about that. Why have we got a lot of money in the CFU?

MS CARNELL: Mr Quinlan is interrupting. We believe that that approach was very much in line with the approach that Mr Quinlan's committee suggested should happen. We also took on board Mr Quinlan's comment or Mr Quinlan's committee's comment and those opposite comments that believed that ACTEW could easily handle repaying that sort of borrowing out of operational activity. We agree that ACTEW can handle borrowings of up to that amount of money from their ongoing operations. It certainly will mean a reduction in returns or rebates to the ACT Government. There is no doubt about that, but those reductions have been factored into our forward estimates.

The interest that the superannuation provision account will generate is reinvested into our superannuation provision account. I think it is important though at this time to make the point that even with the move of $300m across into our superannuation provision account it only really gets to the stage of funding around about half of our unfunded superannuation liability. Mr Speaker, that half - - -

Mr Quinlan: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I understand what we are doing with the $300m from ACTEW going to the super fund. The point of the question is why are we building up huge amounts - - -

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, this is not a point of order.

Mr Quinlan: Well, you are not answering the question. I thought I might explain it to her so she could answer it.

MR SPEAKER: I am sorry; I have no control over that. Ministers can answer the question as they see fit. It is not a point of order, Mr Quinlan.

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, possibly the best outcome for Mr Quinlan, if he is very confused about the whole role of the CFU, is for us to give him a briefing on this issue. It is quite a complicated issue, to follow the trails of transactions through the CFU, with the movement of the money across to the SPA and the borrowing from ACTEW. Mr Speaker, we are very happy to give that briefing to Mr Quinlan.

MR QUINLAN: I have a supplementary question. Given that we estimate that we will have very substantial levels of cash in the years ahead invested by the Central Financial Unit, does the Chief Minister consider it is time to set up a separate superannuation board and a separate investment fund that is quarantined for future purposes from political expedience now and in the future?

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