Page 1169 - Week 03 - Thursday, 31 March 2011
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The purpose of the amendment was that a review was to be undertaken after three years of operation of these reforms, that is, after 30 September 2011, and I have not heard any arguments about why the mandated review of the CTP reforms should not proceed as required by the act. The only comment I have heard to support making further reforms before the review has been undertaken was from this Treasurer. In her arrogance—and it is arrogance, an arrogance which is so typical of this government—the Treasurer is quoted in the Canberra Times of 25 March 2011 as saying that the review of the 2008 reforms to the CTP insurance arrangements “is not going to tell us anything that we don’t already know.” What arrogance! What hypocrisy!
I have held extensive consultations with a number of people and organisations with an interest in the CTP insurance matter and to this point there truly is very limited feedback, of which I am aware, relating to the effect of the 2008 reforms to the ACT’s CTP insurance regime. There is an actuarial analysis of the reforms conducted by Cumpston Sarjeant in mid-2010 and it acknowledged the limited claim finalisations under the revised or new legislation and concluded that it does appear that legal expenses are lower for new claims at a similar operational time.
It is not possible for me to say anything more than that about this report, because of the blacking out of what is claimed to be commercially confidential information. I would simply observe that the denial of this critical information to members of the Assembly means that we are not able to perform our role of using the best available information when formulating public policy.
Indeed, there is some confusion as to who actually owns the report. The government are saying they are seeking permission to release it, but there is some conflict in that the government actually own the report itself, and I hope the Treasurer will inform us as to the status of this. She is on the record in this place as saying she would like to give us this information, but we are yet to see it.
The only other information I have received is anecdotal commentary that claims relating to third-party insurance matters are being processed, at least through the early stages of consideration, more quickly. Importantly, this anecdotal evidence only covers quite recent activity, as it takes people some time to adjust to legislative reforms in the first place. On the other hand, some provisions in the current act are making the current claims process more complex and costly. I can only describe that as a perverse outcome from that sought by the government.
I ask the Treasurer, therefore: what is the evidence that she has that shows the existing CTP insurance regime is not working? And what evidence does she have that the further reforms which she has proposed in her bill will lead to lower premiums and increased competition in the ACT CTP market? Experts to whom I have spoken are not able to provide any substantive evidence one way or the other at this moment.
My motion today seeks to ensure that the ACT adopts a sound approach to making and amending public policy. I do not accept that, because it might appear that previous reforms are not achieving the outcomes that were sought, a new set of reforms should be implemented. The existing reforms have only been in place for just
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