Page 2624 - Week 08 - Thursday, 14 August 2014
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read the ASX guidelines as bedside reading. Who would be shocked at that? But the discussion centred on two things: the annual approach, which was to say that what we relied on was the 7.5 per cent return; and, second, the investment policy of the government. Mr McAuliffe and Mr Nicol gave excellent explanations on how the government goes about investing. The funds are not insubstantial and the government, therefore, has influence and the government must ensure that it does good by the way it invests.
We were told we are still on line for a 2030 covering of the liability. That, of course, is still some years away. We will see the ups and downs of the market, no doubt, many times between now and then. I thank particularly Mr McAuliffe and Mr Nicol for the way they answered questions in estimates.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Housing and Minister for Tourism and Events) (4.52): The superannuation provision account has been established to recognise and account for the territory’s employer-defined liabilities for both CSS and PSS superannuation and the financial investment assets funding these liabilities. The account also recognises the defined benefit superannuation liabilities for eligible members of the Legislative Assembly.
As fully explored during the estimates process, the government maintains the objective of fully funding the territory’s defined benefit superannuation liabilities by 2030. On current settings, that objective is on target. In the 2014-15 budget, the annual amount of appropriation funding to the superannuation provision account is used to fund the annual benefit payments to ComSuper. The account is meeting its long-term target investment return objective of CPI plus five per cent per annum net of fees and is on track to meet the objective of being fully funded by 2030. l commend the appropriation to the Assembly.Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Territory and Municipal Services Directorate—
Schedule 1, Part 1.16—$14,083,000 (net cost of outputs), totalling $14,083,000.
Schedule 1A, Part 1.20—$315,303,000 (net cost of outputs), $207,145,000 (capital injection), totalling $522,448,000.
MR COE (Ginninderra) (4.53): As I have often said, the provision of urban services should be a core business for the ACT government. The TAMS directorate has been given a significant budget to provide such municipal services. ACT residents should expect to receive better services than they currently do, especially given the increasing rates, land taxes, fees, charges and taxes which we all pay. Unfortunately, it is no surprise that, once again, Roads ACT has failed to meet its percentage of resurfacing targets. This is after the target for municipal roads was reduced for the last 12 months. How is it that the government is still unable to meet its target? Either there is a structural problem within Roads ACT or the target is perhaps just not reasonable. One way or another, the government is not meeting expectations.
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