Page 1954 - Week 06 - Friday, 6 May 2005

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With this new legislation there is an opportunity for the ACT government to correct this problem by assisting non-government organisations in regard to more effectively spending their government funding. I encourage the ACT government to look at the non-government organisations insurance program in the Victorian Department of Human Services as a solution to this problem.

The service agreement with non-government organisations provides free insurance through the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority in the areas of public liability, directors and officers liability, professional indemnity, medical malpractice and volunteers personal accident insurance. The non-government organisation recipients of this insurance are working in the fields of aged, community and mental health, disability services, community care, housing and public health. Please note, however, that these free insurance policies do not provide cover for fire, burglary or motor vehicles, and that non-government organisations need to purchase insurance policies for these items themselves.

As I provide my support to the Insurance Authority Bill 2005, I encourage the ACT government to investigate and consider introducing such a program for government-funded non-government organisations, to ensure that the taxpayers’ dollars are more effectively spent and that non-government organisations are better able to provide the services for which they are contracted.

MR QUINLAN (Molonglo—Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development and Business, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Sport and Recreation, and Minister for Racing and Gaming) (10.36), in reply: In answer to some of Mr Mulcahy’s queries, I thought “robust and flexible” was a ball-winning rover with occasional capacity to act as a goal scorer. It just depends on your frame of reference, really.

Mr Pratt: We are rugger buggers on this side.

MR QUINLAN: Do you have centre half-backs in rugby?

Mr Pratt: No, fullbacks.

MR SPEAKER: Order!

MR QUINLAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. We are really talking about trying to make the role of the insurance authority and the management of it work as it ought to work. We have an external board at this stage. We wish to maintain access to the experience, knowledge and expertise of that board but, at the same time, we really need to manage our insurance authority in a broader and more flexible manner.

The commercial orientation can engender a risk aversion. The insurance authority will be trying to provide insurance cover for government and, to a larger extent than would an ordinary commercial insurance company, represent and take into account the interests of the client, as well as the interests of minimum corporate costs overall to government.

We are not profit oriented and we do not want to be risk averse to the point where we cannot find coverage for some of our agencies. There does need to be a greater degree of


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