Page 2836 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 22 November 1989
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forward their subscription a second time to obtain ambulance cover? Has the Government costed the additional administrative expense of this cumbersome procedure?
MR BERRY: I think the best way to handle that question is to take it on notice and respond in due course.
Adult Video Industry
MR COLLAERY: My question is to the Treasurer. Is she aware of an offer by the adult video industry representative to pay a voluntary tax and to submit to a voluntary regulatory scheme? If so, is she going to accept the voluntary tax funds?
MS FOLLETT: I do not have formal advice of such an offer from the Adult Video Industry Association but I have heard, via some of the media representatives, that the association is planning to make available some funds. The story that I heard was not of a voluntary tax but, rather, a voluntary contribution to charities within the ACT. I think that is a very welcome contribution. There are indeed a great number of worthy causes in the ACT that could very well do with those funds.
But it has to be said that the Bill upon which the Assembly voted last night would have provided to the whole of the ACT community a very much larger sum of money, and that is what I would have regarded as a tax measure, a very good one, a simple one to administer and one which should have been supported.
The rumour that I have on the video industry's current proposal is that it is more or less a donation to charitable organisations. While that is welcome, it is certainly a long way short of what the Assembly knocked back last night.
Public Service Transfers
MR MOORE: My question to the Chief Minister follows a similar line. In view of the rejection by this Assembly of a vital element of the Government's budget proposals, some hard decisions will have to be made about alternative funding. Will the Government consider as one of its options returning $5m worth of public service personnel to the Commonwealth and, if so, what are the ramifications of such an action for the proper management of this Territory?
MS FOLLETT: Well, the short answer is no, I will not consider returning $5m worth of public service personnel to the Commonwealth. It might be worth while pointing out to the Assembly that there are, I believe, about 16,800 staff employed in total by the ACT Government agencies, but only
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