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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-03-04 Daily Xml
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WORKCOVER CORPORATION

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (14:40): My question is to the Minister for Industrial Relations. Is the unfunded liability of WorkCover more than $1 billion and, if so, what is it? Also, what is the total liability of WorkCover?

The Hon. P. CAICA (Colton—Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development) (14:40): I believe it was in November last year that I reported to a committee inquiring into the Auditor-General's Report. The member sat on that committee and I think he asked a similar question at that stage. The audited figures at that stage showed that the unfunded liability was $986 million. I will correct that if it is wrong, but it was around that figure. I think I also mentioned at that stage that, given the economic climate with which South Australia has been confronted—the world economic crisis, and we are not immune to that, regrettably—you would not have to be Einstein (and I know I am not, and the member certainly is not) to know the consequences.

I do not have the figures, of course, because I will not announce those figures until I have properly audited figures. However, if you look at the scheme of things (and I have spoken with the member for Morphett on numerous occasions about this), no matter how conservatively or well the investment people at WorkCover might have done, they are not immune to the impact it would have had upon their equities portfolio. We also know that they have a significant amount of investment in cash as well, with interest rates dropping.

So, it would certainly be my expectation that the unfunded liability would be over $1 billion and, of course, that was reported to the Statutory Authorities Review Committee last week, I understand, by the chief executive officer.

With respect to the final component of the member's question, I cannot answer that because I do not have those figures, and I will not have those until the appropriate auditing of those figures has been undertaken.

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