Page 3050 - Week 07 - Thursday, 30 June 2011
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have shares in a range of companies and activities that are not consistent with our Human Rights Act and other laws of the territory as well as being inconsistent with the values of our community. We will be supporting this appropriation.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Minister for Health, Minister for Industrial Relations and Treasurer) (5.32): In speaking briefly on this line in the budget, let me say that there is a lot of work being undertaken by the superannuation unit in Treasury in actively managing the territory’s growing superannuation liabilities. Fully funding the defined benefit superannuation liability over time remains one of the key financial objectives of the territory.
The government is committed to the effective management and eventual elimination of the unfunded CSS and PSS defined benefit employer superannuation liabilities through a funding plan that is reviewed. The 2011-12 appropriation for the SPA of $144 million continues the government’s commitment of fully funding the defined benefit superannuation liabilities of the territory. Currently the liability is estimated to be 53 per cent funded by financial investment assets as at 30 June 2011.
A major task for the 2011-12 financial year will be to complete the triennial actuarial review and the superannuation liability funding plan review. These reviews will be utilised to revise the superannuation funding plan.
The current funding plan is to fully fund the defined benefit superannuation liabilities by 30 June 2030. The review will comprehensively reassess all the financial and demographic assumptions underpinning the liability projections. I highlight that, again following on from Ms Hunter’s speech, ethical investment issues and financial management practices are being considered by the public accounts committee. The government keenly awaits the conclusions and recommendations from the review, and we will look at them closely as we work our way through any changes that need to be made to the way our investments are currently handled.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Proposed expenditure—Part 1.10—Territory Banking Account—$214,000 (capital injection) and $17,848,000 (payments on behalf of the territory), totalling $18,062,000 be agreed to.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (5.34): The territory banking account—the TBA, as it is affectionately known—is used to manage the general government investment assets and debt liabilities. What I consider to be an important issue at the TBA relates, in the first instance, to transparency. I made similar comments last year and I will repeat them this year: openness and transparency appear to be our watchwords, and they apply here as much as anywhere else.
I would appreciate understanding what changes have taken place underneath the aggregated figures that are shown in table 6.1.1 in budget paper 3. Some further detail in budget paper 3 would assist our analysis and preclude questioning on a similar line each year at estimates.
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