Mr BALDWIN - 2001-11-28
Minister, you have stated publicly that all Territorians are likely to pay a levy to cover the $40m debt caused by the collapse of HIH Insurance. Further, you said and I will quote you from NT News, 20 November:
I told the department to go back and look at options for a community-based levy.
The mini-budget, Minister, makes no mention of a further tax to cover the HIH liability so, in the interests of fiscal transparency, please tell us when you are going to reveal the details of this additional and secret Labor tax?
ANSWER
I thank the member for Daly for his question and for leading with his chin, Madam Speaker. The issue of the HIH levy - and if we are talking about openness and transparency, let us go back to the events of, I think it was March last year, when HIH went under.
The unfortunate collapse of HIH, a great corporate failure, saw the Northern Territory, by far, in proportion to population, the most affected of all the states in regards to workers compensation, with the estimated liability of around $50m and 600 Territorians who were affected at the time. who were receiving workers compensation payments through HIH. In response to that, the previous government, the previous Minister for Industries and Business and the previous Treasurer allocated $3m into the fund to support these people. The term they used at the time was: ‘We have kicked the money in. We have made an ex gracia payment.’ What they did not say at the time, was that they had loaned the money into the scheme and that loan ...
Members interjecting.
Mr HENDERSON: I will get to the point. That loan would have to be repaid at a point of time to be determined, with interest.
This was not made public to the business community. Then the previous government came into this parliament and established the capability of levying the business community once the full liability had been determined. If you look at what I said at the time - and I am on the record in this parliament - was we would be looking at the issue, that we accepted the structure of putting the legislation in place, but imploring the previous government of the time to look at all options. I think my comments at the time were: ‘This buys us time’.
We have looked at that, and in this budget we have allocated an additional $6m by way of a grant - total $9m - which will take us up to the end of this financial year. The department is looking at all of the options. We have to make a decision, and we will make a decision as this government, once all of the options have been considered as to the best way forward in terms of meeting this liability and meeting the payments to injured Territory workers.
The previous government was going to slug the whole $50m on the business community. That was your position. That was the structure that you put in place, supported with qualification. We, as the government now, are looking at all options. We are looking at all options in terms of the levy. We have bought the time. We believe that it will see us through this financial year and we are looking at all options to recover and to meet this liability payment. The previous government, the supposed friends of the business community, were going to slug the business community the entire $50m. They went about it in a very secret, underhanded manner that the business community did not understand at the time.
I told the department to go back and look at options for a community-based levy.
The mini-budget, Minister, makes no mention of a further tax to cover the HIH liability so, in the interests of fiscal transparency, please tell us when you are going to reveal the details of this additional and secret Labor tax?
ANSWER
I thank the member for Daly for his question and for leading with his chin, Madam Speaker. The issue of the HIH levy - and if we are talking about openness and transparency, let us go back to the events of, I think it was March last year, when HIH went under.
The unfortunate collapse of HIH, a great corporate failure, saw the Northern Territory, by far, in proportion to population, the most affected of all the states in regards to workers compensation, with the estimated liability of around $50m and 600 Territorians who were affected at the time. who were receiving workers compensation payments through HIH. In response to that, the previous government, the previous Minister for Industries and Business and the previous Treasurer allocated $3m into the fund to support these people. The term they used at the time was: ‘We have kicked the money in. We have made an ex gracia payment.’ What they did not say at the time, was that they had loaned the money into the scheme and that loan ...
Members interjecting.
Mr HENDERSON: I will get to the point. That loan would have to be repaid at a point of time to be determined, with interest.
This was not made public to the business community. Then the previous government came into this parliament and established the capability of levying the business community once the full liability had been determined. If you look at what I said at the time - and I am on the record in this parliament - was we would be looking at the issue, that we accepted the structure of putting the legislation in place, but imploring the previous government of the time to look at all options. I think my comments at the time were: ‘This buys us time’.
We have looked at that, and in this budget we have allocated an additional $6m by way of a grant - total $9m - which will take us up to the end of this financial year. The department is looking at all of the options. We have to make a decision, and we will make a decision as this government, once all of the options have been considered as to the best way forward in terms of meeting this liability and meeting the payments to injured Territory workers.
The previous government was going to slug the whole $50m on the business community. That was your position. That was the structure that you put in place, supported with qualification. We, as the government now, are looking at all options. We are looking at all options in terms of the levy. We have bought the time. We believe that it will see us through this financial year and we are looking at all options to recover and to meet this liability payment. The previous government, the supposed friends of the business community, were going to slug the business community the entire $50m. They went about it in a very secret, underhanded manner that the business community did not understand at the time.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016