Page 3178 - Week 10 - Thursday, 15 August 2013
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of course, denied that there was any need for an audit—have now brought in an individual to do an audit under their auspicing. I am not casting any aspersion on the individual; he seems to have the experience to do such an audit, but I think the independence and power of the Auditor-General are required to be brought to bear on this issue.
It is a very serious issue when you hear somebody of the stature of the commissioner saying, “If I hadn’t changed my determination then of course the spectre of insolvency was raised.” We still need to get to the bottom of it. Indeed, the minister was quite cautious on Tuesday when he tabled the final result for the 2012-13 financial year, saying that the figures were still subject to the final determinations of the Auditor-General and the auditors of ACTEW as to what the impairment may or may not be of assets.
We have this lingering doubt hanging over the situation. We raised the point quite seriously on Tuesday that we should not be having this debate today. We should not have had this debate at all. It would not have hurt to put it off for a month and done it in the September sitting.
I will read in full again from the statement of corporate intent. On page 19, in a big red box in big red letters, it says:
These forecasts are based upon assumptions made by ACTEW prior to the ICRC’s release of its final report for regulated water and sewerage services in the ACT on 26 June 2013. The likely impact of that report has not yet been fully determined. The key financial measures set forth in the following sections are subject to material change once the impact of the ICRC report has been determined. It is anticipated that ACTEW will provide revised financial forecasts in late August 2013.
The interesting word is that ACTEW itself believes that these will be subject to “material” change. I think the minister said, “They aren’t material. They aren’t material in the context of the budget.” But when you are talking about tens of millions of dollars, most people would think that was quite material. If it comes out in a negative stance for the Treasurer, it will be interesting to see how they make up those funds.
We all know there are ins and outs, and the ins and outs come all the time. We have had the pre-election update, we have had the end-of-year financials and we now have the ICRC determination. But in the context of the budget for the coming year, for the full financial year we find ourselves in now, it is important that when we finish the budget debate we sign off as an Assembly that that is the starting point. Unfortunately, it will not be in this case. We are going to get some data in August and we will get a mid-year update probably in February next year. So we really will not know what the starting point for the year was until February next year, two-thirds of the way through the year.
I think that is unfortunate, and it is unfortunate because it is unnecessary. The government have supply; the government have the ability to get on with their works. We hear all the time how they are moving to fulfil their election commitments and
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