House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-04-07 Daily Xml

Contents

SHARED SERVICES

84 Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Leader of the Opposition) (30 September 2008). With respect to the 2008-09 budget papers and in particular, the Department of Treasury and Finance administered items account, what are the details of the grant payments to support the transfer of agency long service liabilities relating to administered arrangements associated with the Shared Services initiative?

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Minister for Industry and Trade, Minister for Federal/State Relations): I have been provided the following information:

As part of the establishment of shared services, agencies are transferring all related assets and liabilities (in particular employee leave liabilities) from their balance sheets to that of Shared Services SA. The cash associated with the liabilities is also being transferred from agencies to ensure that as Shared Services SA is established, it is provided with sufficient working capital to meet its liabilities when they fall due.

The $30 million reflected in the 2008-09 Budget Papers was a point-in-time estimate of the accumulated long service leave liabilities that might transfer to Shared Services SA during 2008-09. It was established as a source of cash that agencies could access if they did not hold sufficient cash reserves of their own to meet the required transfers to Shared Services SA.

Because this budget line reflects an internal transaction within government, there is no budget impact associated with the establishment or use of the provision. Conversely, there is no benefit to the budget if the provision is not used.