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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 6 Hansard (23 May) . . Page.. 1604 ..

MR QUINLAN: Absolutely. You would have that deficit. So the comparison you are making between that back-casting year that was hardly audited at all and this year's budget is something in the order of $110 million. It doesn't matter about the facts though, does it?

While we are on superannuation, I have asked for that report. I have asked for that report for six or nine months. The gain in superannuation, the reduction in our liability, has now been factored into the budgets, according to the process, for the next 12 years. However, can I get a copy of that report? No, we haven't got one. We have only had advice from the actuary that that is what we ought to be doing, but we haven't got a report. The government should come forward and table whatever documents it does have in relation to that.

I want to make a couple of other comments in response to what Mrs Carnell said about industry support. Somehow we have given a fillip to EDS and that brought 400 jobs to the ACT. It is a miracle. Not the fact that EDS happens to have a very large contract with the Taxation Office which happens to be in Canberra, and Canberra might be the logical place for EDS to set up the processes of developing that particular project and those products for the ATO with them; not the fact that the case put forward by EDS was largely managed within the ACT beforehand, but we have made all the difference. Well, that is nonsense.

The report that my committee brought down makes the valid point that we would like to see less business incentive going to multinational companies and more business incentives going to local companies. That is what we would like to see. That is the point of it.

Mr Humphries: You might risk some jobs doing that because some of the biggest jobs come from those multinational companies.

MR QUINLAN: We are looking for jobs for Canberrans. At a later stage we will be advising you that we would like to see the ACT economy assist local industry, not just the knowledge industry. I know that you people have borrowed from my previous policy speech on knowledge-based economy, as recently as a fortnight ago. Read your Hansard. I am quoted in it. Nevertheless, we still would like to see a bit of diversity in our industry because not everybody is going to grow up to be a computer programmer or a systems engineer. We would like some diversity. I will close, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, by thanking the Chief Minister for accepting most of the recommendations of our report.

MS CARNELL (Chief Minister) (4.32), in reply: It is important that I make a couple of comments about what Mr Quinlan just said. I am sure he really knows that the reason why the unfunded superannuation liability has come down is that we have 2,800 fewer staff. In fact, our wages bill is some $170 million lower than it would have been if we had not reduced our staffing numbers. What happened was that every inch of the way those opposite opposed every single step we took to reduce our expenditure. Every single step we took to reduce expenditure, to keep a lid on expenditure and to raise more revenue was opposed by those opposite.

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