Page 2668 - Week 08 - Thursday, 24 August 2006
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neglected to mention was that his government has caused that parlous budgetary position through poor management of the ACT budget since 2001.
It is worth noting, notwithstanding the fact that we have discussed this on another occasion, that the Australian Labor Party here in the ACT failed to support the reduction at their recent annual conference. Indeed, it is my understanding that no-one opposed the motion calling on the government to reverse its decision. Clearly, the party organisation and membership of the Labor Party and any MLAs present remained deathly silent on this issue. It is a sad indictment of the Labor Party’s ability to be financially responsible and, I believe, it casts doubt on their and, by extension, the government’s ability to effectively manage the budget.
We have a situation here where one man says we cannot afford to do it, and he is probably right, although for all the wrong reasons, none of which would be conceded. Then the whole party behind him says, “It is just dreadful what you are doing.” Of course there are going to be terrible consequences. I suppose the world will not come to an end if it is less attractive for people to run from this place because they can not only get nine per cent super. I do not know if that will be the deciding factor for future candidates. But I think there will be bigger issues in terms of commonwealth competitive recruitment. People who choose to have a public sector career will say that the ACT government increasingly is moving towards becoming the second-class version of public sector employment.
It is a competitive environment. I think Treasury and other agencies federally show little regard for the impact of their entry level wages on the ACT community. There are extraordinary levels in some agencies, and I think it is very easy to just tick off on that and say, “If we make this a breakneck rate of starting salary, nobody can beat us to the punch.” I do not think that is responsible behaviour by the commonwealth, and I have expressed that view in the presence of commonwealth ministers. I do not think it is helpful. There is little that I, or probably any of us, can do at this level to change that approach. I think if the territory winds its position back it will have problems in years to come in getting the quality of people that we need to get on top of the affairs of the ACT. That being said, I do agree with the Chief Minister that he probably had no choice but to make these reforms. During the estimates process, Dr Grimes, the CEO of Treasury, said:
The level of accumulation funding that is being provided from 1 July this year for new employees is nine per cent, or 10 per cent if an employee makes a contribution of three per cent. As a result of that, it will now be possible for the government to fund its superannuation liabilities over a shorter period.
We have got to continually take ourselves back to reports of recent times, certainly in the period since I have been in the Assembly, and I encourage members to note Auditor-General’s report No 7 of 2005, 2004-05 Financial audits, point 4.112, which states:
Although the new scheme is expected to reduce costs, the recent significant upward trend in unfunded superannuation liabilities raises a question as to whether government current strategies to manage this growing shortfall will be effective in preventing it from growing to the point where significant financial difficulties are experienced in the long term.
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