Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-06-06 Daily Xml

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The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:42): I have a supplementary arising from the answer. Just so I understand it correctly, was the Treasurer claiming that the government doesn't have the capacity, anywhere within government, to conduct economic modelling on proposed changes to regulations?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:42): I'm not sure why the Leader of the Opposition has such a furrowed brow because it's the same Public Service that he left us. Economic modelling is done by—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: With a much higher morale now.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: Yes, exactly. Economic modelling is done by specialist consultancies or jurisdictions. There are only a very few in the nation who have the capacity to do true economic modelling. The state Public Service doesn't have the position—the best that the state Public Service has been able to do over the years, on some of the freedom of information requests that I got from the former government, is something called 'input-output modelling', which is a very crude and inaccurate form of modelling. It is not the sort of economic modelling that some of the economic consultancy firms or, indeed, one or two of the specialist interstate universities have developed business models. They market themselves as people with economic models and, as I said, they market themselves to potential clients both in the public and private sector.