Page 4073 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 13 December 2006
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superannuation contributions to ACT government employees have occurred throughout the lifespan of the previous human resources system utilised by your government. Treasurer, can you inform the Assembly as to the magnitude of this fault? How many ACT public servants does it affect? To what extent has this fault impacted their superannuation contributions? What is the potential cost of this fault to the ACT taxpayer?
MR STANHOPE: The question does not go to this, but it is interesting that the issue raised by the shadow Treasurer, which was addressed in estimates, is essentially recognition of one of the strengths of the Chris21. Chris21, through its application and its processes, revealed this particular glitch in relation to payments of employer-provided superannuation contributions through the sophistication of its software.
So whilst the opposition in particular have been quite keen to play up the alleged faults of Chris21, this particular fault that has now been identified in relation to underpayments and overpayments of employer-provided superannuation contributions would not arguably have been revealed or discovered without the sophistication or the testing that has been done on Chris21. It is certainly a tribute to those that installed and tested that system that they discovered this particular error.
In fact the error was inherited from the commonwealth. I always love the irony of these questions—pointing the finger at this particular government—around alleged failings. Through seven years of Liberal government this error churned on, year after year after year, never discovered. The previous government—
Mr Mulcahy: You always go back to the past, don’t you? It must be Trevor Kaine’s fault. It’s Trevor Kaine’s fault.
MR STANHOPE: And indeed, since before self-government. All the way through Trevor Kaine, all the way through the previous seven years of Liberal government this mistake rolled over and over, year after year, under the watchful eye of the Liberal Party during that period since self-government—their nine years in government. This government discovered it and this government will fix it.
I think it is ironic that the shadow Treasurer stands up here drawing attention to a mistake in the calculation and payment of employer-provided superannuation because we discovered it. We discovered an error. And we will fix the error. An error that was not discovered—an error that was contributed to by nine years of Liberal government—by Mr Mulcahy’s predecessors over nine years—
Mr Mulcahy: Oh, okay—nine years!
MR STANHOPE: It is interesting. He says, “I wasn’t here then.” We have always noticed the alacrity with which Mr Mulcahy distances himself from those that came before him in this place: “They were the old Liberals; they were the Brendan Smyth Liberals; they were the Bill Stefaniak Liberals; they weren’t the Richard Mulcahy Liberals.” It was Brendan Smyth and Bill Stefaniak that, in seven long years in government, were responsible for this oversight, this error—it was not the Richard Mulcahy Liberals; it was not the Richard Mulcahy faction that was involved
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