Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 1 Hansard (8 December) . . Page.. 4046 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

In fact, the only thing that has been abused in relation to this whole matter has been the Chief Minister and her Government's approach to the payment of temporary accommodation allowance for senior executives.

I want to reflect quickly on a document which the Chief Minister tabled today in the Assembly. Today she tabled a minute from the then Commissioner for Public Administration, dated 13 August 1996, relating to new arrangements - I stress that - for the payment of temporary accommodation allowance. What did these new arrangements do, Mr Speaker? They provided for three things. First of all, they increased the payment of relevant temporary accommodation allowance to senior executives by 60 per cent and 41 per cent respectively. I will just emphasise that. There was a 60 per cent increase and a 41 per cent increase. When did it occur, Mr Speaker? It occurred in 1996.

Mr Hargreaves: Who was the Chief Minister?

MR CORBELL: Who was the Chief Minister, my colleague Mr Hargreaves asks? Mrs Carnell was the Chief Minister. What else did this minute do, Mr Speaker? It also overruled the requirement which is normally provided for in the guidelines for temporary accommodation allowance for officer contributions so that no contributions were required to be made by senior executives towards the cost of their accommodation.

Thirdly, Mr Speaker, this minute overruled the standard three-year limit for temporary accommodation allowance as prescribed by the guidelines by extending the entitlement for five years. I repeat, five years. It was not an extension halfway through the contract, or a quarter of the way through the contract; it was an extension from the beginning of the contract. From the day the contract was signed, the deal was that these senior executives would get this payment for five years, which is the full length of their contract.

Mr Speaker, the Chief Minister has said publicly and in this place that the temporary accommodation allowance that these executives were being paid was made under Labor's guidelines. Well, Mr Speaker, this document puts the lie to that. It puts the absolute lie to that because this document indicates that these changes were made in 1996 in the period of the Liberal Government. Deliberate changes were made to the guidelines set up in 1994. These changes were made in 1996 under the Liberal Government to increase the amount paid to senior executives, to extend the payment for the full five years of the contract, and to overrule any requirement for officer contribution.

Mr Speaker, the Chief Minister has only one choice in relation to this matter. First of all, she must answer the question, "Why were these arrangements made?". She has not given a reason to date. Secondly, she should do the decent thing, the morally right thing, the thing that is consistent with the report of the Ernst and Young review into these arrangements, and stop the payments. When will the Chief Minister do so, Mr Speaker?

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .