Page 5701 - Week 15 - Thursday, 10 December 2009
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Supplementary answer to question without notice
Treasury department—loan interest rate
MS GALLAGHER: I have just got a matter arising from question time. I have just verified the loan of $7.761 million at an interest rate of 12.57 per cent as of 30 June. It is also reflected on page 117 of budget paper 3 for the 2009-10 budget. I am not quite sure what your point is on this one, Mr Seselja, but these are commonwealth attributed borrowings which have come to the ACT following the introduction of self-government in 1989. The loans were established to reflect the value of the underlying assets transferred to the territory, and the seven points—
Mr Smyth: Yes, but why are you paying so much interest for it?
MS GALLAGHER: Just a minute, Mr Smyth. The $7.761 million represents the remaining balance, as I am sure members would be aware. Why has this loan not been refinanced to current interest rates? The Treasury advice to me has been that it has been assessed as uneconomic to do so. In order to refinance the loan at current financing rates, the lender would be required to be compensated for the income forgone over the remaining term of the loan at the established loan interest rate. On page 117—and I am sure your advisers, Mr Seselja, would have seen this—it is a fixed interest rate with a maturity date of 2023. I note that no government since self-government has renegotiated this rate.
It is not considered that any saving is possible because the level of penalty payments required would be uneconomic. So that is the answer. It is almost as good as the question on notice I got from the Leader of the Opposition around how much money the commonwealth pays the ACT government in payroll tax.
Papers
Mr Stanhope presented the following paper:
Strategic Budget Review—Department of Territory and Municipal Services—Implementation of recommendations—Progress report, dated December 2009.
Ngunnawal genealogy study
Paper and statement by minister
MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra—Chief Minister, Minister for Transport, Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, Minister for Business and Economic Development, Minister for Land and Property Services, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs and Minister for the Arts and Heritage): For the information of members, I present the following paper:
Ngunnawal Genealogy Study—Consultation with the United Ngunnawal Elders Council and Indigenous Elected Body—Report back to the Assembly.
I seek leave to make a statement in relation to the paper.
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