WorkCover

The Hon. I.F. EVANS (Davenport) (14:34): Supplementary: in relation to my first question, which was to do with the actuarial work being undertaken in just 10 days for the government to substantiate its savings that it announced prior to the election, is the Attorney aware of Finity Consulting, which undertook the actuarial advice, suggesting that there were risks to the accuracy of the savings estimates due to the short time frame for the advice to be provided?

Ms Chapman: Uh-oh.

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Industrial Relations) (14:34): Was that an 'Uh-oh'? I'm not worried about this at all. Finity have been providing advice. Look, can we please get this clear: Finity have been the actuaries that have advised WorkCover for a considerable period of time, I believe, and they are one of, if not the premier actuaries in Australia.

Ms Chapman: So did they say that it's a risk?

The SPEAKER: The deputy leader is warned for the second and final time.

The Hon. P. Caica: Beauty. Do it once more, Vicki; come on, for the team.

The SPEAKER: The member for Colton is called to order.

The Hon. P. Caica: Sorry, sir.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Mr Speaker, I don’t know how many members of the parliament have had the privilege of diving into actuarial reports regularly in the past, but I would like to share a couple of the frequently recurrent themes in actuarial reports. The actuary's reports generally start off with something like, 'Please don't take any notice of anything we've said here, and don't sue us for anything we might say.' That is the opening paragraph. Then it goes, 'Hello, we are the actuaries; you have asked us to comment on these things. We assume what you have told us is true, that the world is round, that the sun will come up in the morning, and a whole bunch of other things that we can't tell you and you can't tell us and therefore we are not going to be held to this.' That is the first paragraph. If the question that is being asked of me by the honourable member is, 'Do actuaries embed, in every single sentence contained in every single paragraph, caveats?' the answer is: yes, they do.

The Hon. I.F. Evans: That's not the question!

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Yes, they do—and if they cannot think of one, they will add one. They are very creative folks when it comes to caveats. The point is, I have never seen an actuarial report that is not riddled with caveats, and—

Mr Marshall: It is a very specific caveat.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I don't know to which report in particular the honourable member is referring, and—

The Hon. I.F. Evans: The one that went to cabinet.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: —based on past—

Mr Marshall: The one you based your election promises on.

The SPEAKER: Leader.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Based on past experience, I hope the parliament will indulge me in not assuming that everything contained in a question coming from the other side is actually factual, but can I cut to the chase: the government made a promise at the beginning of this year—

Ms Redmond: The government makes lots of promises it doesn't keep.

The SPEAKER: The member for Heysen is warned for the second and final time.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: The government actually did something the opposition refused to do: the government published a policy about WorkCover before the election and, when our friends in the media asked the opposition what they would do, they said, 'We'll think about it after the election.' In our policy, if you read the document—I think it is on the internet somewhere; it is that thing on the computer—it says that we would provide a bill to the parliament which would deliver a scheme with a break-even premium rate of between 1.5 and 2 per cent break-even average premium, and we said that, if we delivered the outer end of that promise, which was 2 per cent, it would turn into approximately $180 million less expense across South Australia of business on WorkCover levies. That is what we promised, and that is what we are going to do.