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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 9 Hansard (1 September) . . Page.. 2701 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

If the board was receiving too much money, I am sure it would let this Assembly know. If they were receiving too little, they would let this Assembly know. There would be a recommendation coming to this place, as there was with the construction industry's long service leave fund and we changed the levy as a result of an actuarial examination of the matter.

Ms Carnell: In three years.

MR BERRY: It is not only in three years. The Bill makes it very clear that it will be when requested by the board or in three years. If the board noticed after six months that they had too much money, they could request that there be an actuarial assessment and then they could come back to us and say that they want the levy to be 11/2 per cent or that they want us to deduct a little bit less. You cannot get better than that; it is as good as you can get. You cannot get better than that. It is the ultimate in safety valves; you cannot get better than that. The committee is not going to be able to improve on the model because practice is going to tell the board a lot as time passes by.

Again, it is very clear how the finances of the fund would be managed. It would be done in much the same way as they are successfully managed for the construction industry. It is all set out in the legislation. There has been no question about the way that it has been set out. It is appropriate to deal with it in this way because it is a tried and proven method. I have answered both of those questions. Do you have any more?

MR KAINE (12.33): Mr Speaker, I suspect that the Minister already has the numbers to get his referral to a committee through. That concerns me in that it was a very non-specific referral. I would like to amend his motion by adding words to it. I move:

At least that puts a time limit on it.

MR SMYTH (Minister for Urban Services) (12.34): Mr Speaker, we would absolutely agree with that. I actually thought that the committee would do it much faster than that. Mr Corbell is on it and I am sure that he will put pressure on it. Mr Rugendyke has a keen interest in the subject and he has said that he thinks that there are issues of concern. The Government is happy with the amendment and it should be put.

Amendment agreed to.

Question put:

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