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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-06-30 Daily Xml
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Government Bad Debts

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL (15:09): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking questions of the Treasurer around debts that are owed to government.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL: One of the consequences of the COVID pandemic is that many payments for goods and services are not being made at the moment, whether that is in the public sector or the private sector. In addition, there are many prepayments for goods and services that are not being honoured, again both in the public and the private sector. My questions of the Treasurer are:

1. Is the government able to indicate how its levels of bad or doubtful debts have changed during the COVID pandemic?

2. Has the government's criteria for writing off debts that are owed to government changed or been revised due to COVID?

3. In relation to prepayments for services, does the Treasurer know how much money the state government has likely lost through the cancellation of travel arrangements by public servants, whether that be domestic or overseas, for example, in consequence of Virgin Australia's difficulties?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:10): I am happy to take the final question on notice. I am not sure how much information we might be able to provide but, if I can, I will endeavour to provide some information. In relation to whether there have been any changes to the government's bad debt policy, I think the answer to that is no but within the context that, during COVID-19, we have made alternative arrangements in relation to people who have sought additional funding or have sought forgiveness of loans or deferral of loans, etc.

I am not sure that technically comes within the purview of the member's question but, in broad terms, I think I have outlined before that there are a significant number of loans that businesses in particular had with the government. We have allowed deferral of those loans at least for a six-month period and, in some rare cases, for longer periods, consistent with the practice that the banks have adopted in relation to mortgages and other business loans.

We have done that, but in relation to writing off debts, I have not agreed to any permanent position in relation to that. In terms of trying to provide assistance to organisations and others, we have had a case-by-case merit-based process in terms of considering the position of a particular individual, company or organisation in relation to that. I must admit that, working backwards, I have forgotten the honourable member's first question, if he could just refresh my memory.

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL: Whether there is any indication of how levels of bad or doubtful debts have grown.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: I will have to take that on notice. I think the answer to that is probably no. I don't have any information in relation to that. As I said, to my knowledge we have not been writing off debts at this stage, but whether we have any information in relation to categories of doubtful debts, for example, categories like that, I will take that particular question on notice as well to see whether there is any information that I might be able to provide to the honourable member.

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