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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-10-15 Daily Xml
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MOTOR ACCIDENT COMMISSION

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Leader of the Opposition) (14:47): As a supplementary question, in light of the Treasurer's answer to my previous question, how does he reconcile his claims that the Motor Accident Commission is in good shape with the Auditor-General 's finding that its situation had deteriorated to a point where 'it was risking not meeting solvency requirements', and will he rule out an increase in the Motor Accident Commission's charges to the public to meet that solvency risk?

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Minister for Industry and Trade, Minister for Federal/State Relations) (14:48): This is a man who wants to be the treasurer of this state. Think through what he just said. I have not disagreed with the Auditor-General. The Auditor-General has made a correct statement of fact that we are in breach of our solvency targets. I have said that. What I said is that my solvency target has its funding somewhere north of 140 per cent in good times; we got up to 160. And that gave us the buffer to withstand the attack and assault that we have seen on the sharemarket globally that has brought this down. But, then he says, 'Oh, but will you now agree not to increase premiums to address the solvency position?' We have only one revenue flow into the third party comprehensive—

Mr Hamilton-Smith interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: —third party scheme, and that is motor accident. That is what we charge. We do not have any other income streams. I do not know what else he is suggesting we should do, or is he suggesting that we should cut benefits to injured drivers?

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Should we cut benefits to injured drivers? Well, as I said earlier in my speech, if you had not ignored the advice of the Third Party Premium Committee under your tenure in government, we would not be where we are today because there would have been accumulated assets that would not have meant—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: When we came to office, we were asked to increase premiums by 21.7 per cent because they refused to increase them. This is where the Leader of the Opposition walks both sides of the street: 'What are you going to do about your solvency levels? But are you going to increase premiums?'

This year we increased premiums. The Third Party Premium Committee recommended that we increase them by 10.9 per cent, and we authorised a 7.2 per cent increase. We did not pass on the full increase but we passed on a substantial increase—and in excess, by a large margin, of any increase (bar one year) that the Liberals ever passed on. Each and every year the Third Party Premium Committee gives its advice, independent as to what increases are necessary to maintain solvency levels. It is then up to the government to choose to either accept that or vary it. In most cases we have agreed to accept it—with some slight variation on one or two occasions—and, in two years, on the advice of the Third Party Premium Committee, we reduced rates. We have done so because we have acted with proper due diligence, with proper financial scrutiny, and with proper financial understanding of the impact of what we were doing.

The Motor Accident Commission is a well-run organisation chaired by Roger Cook, who has worked on both sides of politics for governments of both persuasions. I know the Leader of the Opposition has a high regard for him, and I think we can all be very thankful that he is in that job. There are also still members on the board who served under the former Liberal government, such as Kym Weir, and others (I am not sure if Yvonne Sneddon served under the previous government).

I can also say that the recently retired general manager of the Motor Accident Commission, Geoff Vogt, who I thought did an outstanding job as the general manager—

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: A stock market collapse; funny that. I wish I could have either predicted or stopped the Wall Street crash; I would be very rich man if I could have foreseen that.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Geoff Vogt was a very good manager of the Motor Accident Commission for a long time. He was appointed under the former government and was a former ministerial adviser to the Liberal treasurer Dale Baker, and he did a very good job.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Treasurer of the Liberal Party. So it is a good entity, and well run. We have acted on the advice, and that is why it is such a sound and solid organisation today.

The SPEAKER: The member for MacKillop.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: Keep this going, please.

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