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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 5 Hansard (7 May) . . Page.. 1245 ..

MR QUINLAN (continuing):

There is no point taking stock at any other time. If you want to do a set of accounts which have in their title "as at 31 October" and you are going to put in a balance sheet that says "as at 31 October", then you really ought to put in numbers that exist as at 31 October.

Mr Humphries: But why?

MR QUINLAN: Because that is what we got. Quite sensibly, provision was made in this report for improvement-improvement in our position. The commission of audit document puts the projected return on superannuation investments at about zero for this year-even though at 31 October the position was assessed as being far worse than that. This was not taking just the "as at October" and using it to project.

These are the most enlightened projections available to this place this financial year. They are the most up-to-date projections. The consultation document recognises an improvement. It is still not up to the zero mark. Apparently Treasury have a bottle of champagne on ice, and have their fingers crossed that they might actually get to zero and not have a negative year! To say you do not measure it, to say it is a change of method, when we have lost over $80 million-

Mr Humphries: No, we have not. It is not true. We have not lost anything yet.

MR QUINLAN: We have not lost anything yet?

Mr Humphries: No. We may not lose anything.

MR QUINLAN: It would be legitimate to measure the face value of these things at 30 June, but not at 30 October?

Mr Humphries: That is right, because accurate figures-

MR QUINLAN: That is nonsense. This is a projection that says what is expected to happen at 30 June 2003. There is a contradiction.

Mr Humphries: Is that not 2002?

MR QUINLAN: I am sorry-2002. There is a contradiction. Mr Humphries has been saying two things: everything is rosy, but Labor cannot keep its election promises. Our election promises hardly varied from yours. You were talking about fractions-$4 million or $5 million. There were only $10 million to $12 million between us at the election!

Mr Humphries: Of course it would vary.

MR QUINLAN: "We are now heading for a $58 million surplus" and "We cannot fund our election promises!" Which is right? Which do you really believe?

Mr Humphries: They are both right. The promises are going to cost more than $58 million-that is why.

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