Page 3371 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 17 August 2010
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what did you do to inform the community when you received that advice that someone had in fact disputed your analysis?
MS GALLAGHER: I received verbal advice from Treasury around some expert advice they had received in the first week of May, and that was not confirmed in writing for at least another week. I then sought assurances around that advice. And it was not that Treasury’s original advice was wrong; it was—
Opposition members interjecting—
MS GALLAGHER: I know that is not convenient for the opposition. The advice the government has received until April 2010, supported by every government in this place since self-government, and indeed the Auditor-General, who signs off on our accounts, is that we could not make capital investments into Calvary whilst the—
Mr Smyth: Signed off by the Auditor-General?
MS GALLAGHER: The Auditor-General signs off on our accounts and the way we fund issues such as—
Mr Smyth: Let’s send it to the Auditor-General. Let’s refer it all to the Auditor-General.
MS GALLAGHER: The Auditor-General has been involved in this all the way through, Mr Smyth. All the way through, I have sought the involvement of the Auditor-General in these negotiations. I have kept the Auditor-General, through officials, briefed, and have sought the Auditor-General’s advice. So it is important to get at least a base level of understanding of what we are dealing with here. The advice is that exposure draft 194, which was released on 21 April 2010, which related to service concession arrangements that included governments for the first time—they had applied to private sector operators for about a year prior to that—had been released and had gone to the Accounting Standards Board. Indeed, it was endorsed by the board on 14 July.
The advice we got from PricewaterhouseCoopers was in early May. That work was confirmed for my satisfaction by the end of June. I took that to Little Company of Mary Health Care as part of the ongoing negotiations around Calvary Public Hospital. Little Company of Mary Health Care did not agree with that advice, asked us to retest that advice and, indeed, advised us that they would test that advice, and that is where we are at today.
MR SPEAKER: A supplementary, Mr Smyth?
MR SMYTH: Treasurer, why did you not advise the community and the Assembly earlier of this advice?
MS GALLAGHER: Because the advice was in dispute between the parties and remains in dispute between the parties. My intention was to update the Assembly this week. Unfortunately, things were out of my control. Information was leaked to journalists on Thursday afternoon and I had to respond to a number of questions.
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