That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

Mr Speaker, the Ambulance Service Levy (Amendment) Bill 1999 amends the Ambulance Service Levy Act 1990 to provide for an increase in the amount used in the calculation of the Ambulance Service levy, from 63 cents to 83 cents per week, as announced in the Budget. The levy is payable by health benefits organisations in the ACT and is imposed to offset the cost of providing ambulance services in the Territory.

Currently the provisions which allow adjustment of this amount are tied to the NSW Health Insurance Levies Act 1982. In the past, as the NSW rate was adjusted to reflect changes in CPI and average weekly earnings, the ACT amount was adjusted accordingly. However, there have been no such adjustments in NSW since February 1997. Instead, NSW increased its rate from 63 cents to 83 cents from 1 July 1997 through legislative amendment. This amendment to the Act will again bring the ambulance levy in the ACT into line with NSW.

Mr Speaker, in the past the health funds had difficulty in accommodating differences between NSW and the ACT levies, hence the link with the NSW legislation. As this is no longer the case, the amendments will also sever the link and allow the Minister to set the amount by determination under the Taxation Administration Act 1999.