Page 2758 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 29 June 2010
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Infrastructure priorities in the infrastructure plan do not represent a commitment to construction.
Mr Stanhope has put a caveat on it too, saying in the media that although long-term projects could be delivered with a high degree of certainty, we must accept that—and I quote:
… nothing in life is certain except death and taxes.
With the ACT government, taxes are very much certain.
So here we have got a plan that, on one hand, raises our hopes for stage 2 of the Belconnen Arts Centre but, on the other, throws us into the depths of uncertainty. I doubt it ever will happen under an ACT Labor government. It is just another example of the ACT Labor government’s lack of courage and honesty. It is another insult to the people of Belconnen.
Finally, a word about portable long service leave for community organisations. This scheme has been surrounded in controversy and uncertainty from the word go. I was heartened at the estimates hearing to hear that the CEO of the Long Service Leave Authority had been able to identify and talk with most of the organisations that will be caught up in the scheme. What is of most concern, however, is the authority’s admission—and I quote from the Hansard:
There is no doubt that organisations generally are aware that their costs are going to increase to some extent.
I will repeat that:
There is no doubt that organisations generally are aware that their costs are going to increase to some extent.
This has been the primary concern of the community sector right from the start. Until now, they had been making provision for long service leave for their employees, usually after four or five years of service. They have had to pay it only when an employee became entitled to it. If that employee left without becoming entitled, the employer would not have to pay out that money, and they do not necessarily sock it away. More often than not, any unpaid long service leave provisions are put back into the service provided to the community. Now, however, the employer must pay actual payments to the authority for all its employees, regardless of their length of service. Furthermore, there is no prospect of getting any of that money back if an employee leaves the sector before becoming entitled.
So this policy has both a cash flow and an expense impact on our community sector organisations. It impacts on their ability to provide services to the community, often where it is desperately needed. Almost all of the organisations caught up in the scheme rely almost 100 per cent on government funding. So I was heartened to hear from the Treasurer during estimates—and I quote from the Hansard:
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