Page 115 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 14 December 2016
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wants, but at the end of the day what matters to taxpayers is what they are actually on the hook for, what they are actually liable for. That is what the UPF accurately describes.
There are issues with superannuation. One of the issues, of course, is the bogus discount rate that we have in this budget. There is an absolutely bogus discount rate that suggests we have a $3 billion correction every year, and it is wrong.
Mr Barr: It is a 30-year liability.
MR COE: Are we suddenly going to get to six per cent? Tell me, Chief Minister, when we are going to get to six per cent. I would happily welcome the Chief Minister’s contribution to this debate to tell us when we are going to get to six per cent. We are nowhere near six per cent, and because we are not near six per cent, that is why we have a $3 billion correction every single year. That is why our budget statements are so distorted. Hopefully, the Treasurer will make a statement at some point today and tell us when the ACT superannuation liability will return to a discount rate of six per cent. It will certainly not be next year, the year after or the year after that.
Mr Barr: You’re going on the public record and making that prediction, are you? You are a clairvoyant on the bond rate, are you?
MR COE: Well, it is interesting—
MADAM SPEAKER: Excuse me, just because you two gentlemen are sitting very close together, there is to be no conversation, thank you.
MR COE: because this is in effect what his own officials said in the estimates hearing last year.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Coe, direct your comments through the chair, please.
MR COE: Sure, Madam Speaker. The truth is that there are many different figures contained in this budget, but we have a government that is fixated only on the headline net operating balance. That simply does not give a true indication of what the liabilities are for the people of Canberra.
The Chief Minister also spoke about what crowding out is occurring. Well, there is a lot of crowding out occurring in residential construction. A huge amount of crowding out is happening there. Thousands of homes have been almost literally crowded out into New South Wales. That is a very clear example of the crowding out that is happening in our economy as a result of this government’s levers.
Not only is there a one-off capital injection that we forgo, but also there is ongoing revenue that we forgo. Yet for all time these residents just over the border are highly likely to be using our hospitals, our schools, our roads and many other services. We can try to have federation agreements that address this, but nothing would be simpler than actually to have these residents who are using ACT services living in the
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