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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 1 Hansard (14 February) . . Page.. 164 ..
MR HUMPHRIES: Thank you. I move my amendments Nos 1 and 2 [see schedule 2 at page ]. There are a number of things in what Mr Osborne has brought forward that I think we should improve. The first principle which he has proposed in his proposed new section 11 (5) requires a reduction in total liabilities to prudent levels by requiring a balanced operating result. There are a couple of concerns about that. First of all, prudent levels of liabilities need to be considered in the context of the value and the nature of the territory's assets.
Mr Quinlan: Is that in the bill?
MR HUMPHRIES: Of course. At present 60 per cent of the territory's liabilities relate to employee entitlements, principally superannuation. Rather than simply trying somehow to reduce that liability, which of course we cannot do-we really can't reduce the liability until such time as people retire or otherwise leave the service-it makes more sense to create an asset in the form of a fund which offsets that liability. That might have been what Mr Quinlan was trying to get at before.
Mr Quinlan: Brilliant. Brilliant. You're coming along, Gary.
MR HUMPHRIES: I am sure he will agree that my amendments go some way towards achieving the objective he was after before, not perhaps with the same sort of elegance and brilliance as his own amendment. Nonetheless, I hope he will find it in his heart to support them as a way of ensuring that we do not have to reduce liabilities in order to improve our net asset position, as he described it before. The government's proposal is to replace the words "reducing the total liabilities of the territory to prudent levels" with "ensuring that the total liabilities of the territory are at prudent levels". That would allow for prudent levels of liabilities to be considered in line with the asset balances.
I might say also, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, that the wording of the subsection suggests that liabilities can be reduced to prudent levels only by ensuring that operating expenses do not exceed operating revenues. Of course, liabilities on the balance sheet can be managed or reduced without achieving a balanced operating result. The government proposes to replace the word "by" with "and" in that context.
MR QUINLAN (5.33): I do not understand why the Chief Minister has excluded the executive from this bill. I cannot support these amendments because I really cannot support the bill as it is. I am really only using this as a device to stand on my feet and ask for leave to table the explanatory memorandum that I had prepared for my amendment that was not circulated so that it can become a matter of record.
Leave granted.
MR QUINLAN
: Thank you. I present the explanatory memorandum to my amendment to the bill.Question put:
That Mr Humphries' amendments Nos 1 and 2 be agreed to.
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