Page 4074 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 13 December 2006
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in the oversight and the serial repetitive continuation over nine long years in government of this particular issue.
That is the history of the matter. I am pleased that it was through the installation of Chris21—through its testing, through the sophistication of its software—that this particular error, which has been going on for at least 17 years, was discovered. We now have the capacity to remedy and to make the adjustments, whether they be positive or minus. Some of the adjustments that have been identified during the testing phase are as low as $5, but nevertheless $5 is $5. It is money that in some—
Mr Mulcahy: As high as?
MR STANHOPE: We do not know that in terms of the testing. We have only just begun the process. It will be a long and tedious process. We have been pursuing a similar issue in relation to Totalcare that we inherited from the Liberal Party. Similarly there was a significant range of errors and mistakes in the calculation and payment of superannuation through the long years of Liberal Party stewardship of Totalcare. That is one mess that we have already fixed. We fixed the Liberal Party mess in Totalcare—the Totalcare that they bankrupted, the Totalcare that accumulated over $20 million of losses under the watch of the Liberal Party. We fixed that mess.
We now have another issue that similarly we are seeking to redress. We will do that. We do not know about the size, the scope or the extent. It will be a long and tedious process. We will have to check the records of employees over the entire period of self-government. Some will have been paid too much; some will not have been paid enough. At this stage we have no idea how it will balance out. As I say, on some testing that has been done, some of the overpayments are as small as $5; some of the underpayments are as small as $5. But at this stage we have no real feel for the exact extent of this mistake and calculation.
MR MULCAHY: Mr Speaker, I have a supplementary question. Treasurer, are you confident that all faults have been eliminated in all other ACT government and territory-owned corporation human resource systems in relation to prospective superannuation contributions, notwithstanding the fact that you do not have the answer to my first question?
MR STANHOPE: I acknowledge that I do not have the full answer to the question. The answer I have is that, as a result of the sophistication of Chris21, as a result of the skill with which it has been implemented, the new Chris21 system has discovered a fault which has persisted in the payment or calculation of employer-provided superannuation contributions for the entire span of self-government, a fault inherited from the commonwealth at the time of self-government.
It has taken 17 years. That is regrettable. It has taken the sophistication of Chris21 to discover the mistake. We have just discovered it. We have only just completed the implementation of Chris21. We have just discovered a mistake. We have discovered a mistake which persisted, as I say, through the entire period of self-government, including nine years of Liberal government through that period; and we are going to fix it. We will fix it across the board as it pertains to aspects and areas of ACT government administration.
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