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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 6 Hansard (25 May) . . Page.. 1864 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

still convinced that we had a better model to meet all the needs of both the coroner and the Assembly. However, we support these amendments and we will see how they work out.

Amendments agreed to.

Bill, as a whole, as amended, agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

MR QUINLAN (8.35): Mr Speaker, we do not have a great deal of difficulty with this bill. So much of it is common sense that was included in a report of a committee I chaired more than a year ago. We can say that the government is catching up. They are only about a year or so behind.

I understand that Mr Humphries has amendments to the bill which facilitate the payment of capital repatriation from ACTEW into the fund, and maybe even some other operating money into the fund, if we ever get to that great day when we are putting more than the annual appropriation in rather than the "very substantial" $5 million for next year. But, still, $5 million is a start. Hitherto, the Carnell government has put zip out of operations into the fund to support the superannuation liability. It is good that the good times are here and that we can at least start on it.

I notice that the government has an eight-year plan to wipe off the deficit between the provision and the supporting fund. It is an eight-year plan in a budget that has lots of those extended many-year plans, so we get big numbers instead of modest numbers. If you added up all the big figures out of this year's budget, you would certainly have an expenditure way above the expenditure line.

The opposition supports the bill, and the opposition will be supporting Mr Humphries' amendments.

MS TUCKER (8.37): This bill establishes a separate bank account into which money appropriated by the government to cover the territory's superannuation liability will be placed. Money held in that account can be invested in bank deposits, government securities or other prescribed investments but will only be able to be expended for superannuation purposes. The intent of the legislation is to ensure that money set aside for superannuation can only be used for that purpose and not spent by future governments for some other reason.

This bill is consistent with the recommendation of the Select Committee on the Territory's Superannuation Commitments, which reported at the beginning of 1999 and of which I was a member. The committee pointed out that funds set aside to cover

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