5 August 2016

New MLA's stint to be even shorter than expected

| Charlotte
Join the conversation
14
Jeremy Hanson and Val Jeffery.

UPDATE: A spokesman for the Canberra Liberals said today that Mr Jefferey will in fact be in attendance on each of the remaining five sitting days.

The new Liberal Member for Brindabella Val Jeffery will make his maiden speech this morning in the ACT Legislative Assembly but is unlikely to be in attendance for the remaining six sitting days before the ACT election, having arranged for a pair with the Government.

The pair arrangement means that one Government MLA will abstain from voting on any matters before the Assembly in Mr Jeffery’s absence.

Mr Jeffery is 81, and works as the owner/operator of the Tharwa store. He will not run for re-election in October.

He was elected to the Assembly on a countback last week to replace Assembly veteran Brendan Smyth, who starts a new public service role as Commissioner for International Engagement tomorrow.

The new MLA’s maiden speech is expected to focus on issues relevant to residents of rural areas in the ACT, including Tharwa.

Join the conversation

14
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest
HiddenDragon5:46 pm 04 Aug 16

Affirmative Action Man said :

Lurker2913 said :

Russ said :

Garfield said :

I hope Val is getting a fat pension like the rest of the MLA’s

You mean an accumulation Superannuation account like the rest of them? And every other normal worker?

The old defined benefit schemes were closed years ago, only a handful of current members would be in the one for MLAs.

You left out the words “partly funded”.
You will be hearing a lot more about the ACT government’s billions of dollars of unfunded pension/superannuation soon.

Dungfungus,
all new superannuation accounts are fully funded accummulation accounts.

The old defined benefits schemes did not have “direct” funding attached to them at the time but the ACT government has been building investment funds to cover the liability for many years. They’ve currently got about $3.5B in investments out of a liability that will peak at $8-9B in the mid 2030’s. They inject $150-$200million into the fund every year on top of investment earnings.

As for “you’ll be hearing about it soon”, it’s all clearly spelt out in the budget if you’d care to take a look, it’s not like it’s a secret and it’s not like they aren’t planning for it.

http://apps.treasury.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/870900/08.-Chapter-8-Asset-and-Liability-Management.pdf

From page 297 of that document –

“Due to the achievement of strong investment returns on the SPA (Superannuation Provision Account) investment portfolio over recent years, the amount of annual appropriation to the SPA is being reduced by $75 million per annum for three years commencing in 2016-17. The funding objective remains on target with the funding plan monitored on an ongoing basis.”

So anyone who is likely to be an ACT taxpayer/ratepayer for some years to come will be relying on the asset-price pumping activities of the RBA and other central banks to keep producing magic pudding results – the defined benefit costs are largely locked-in, the money to pay for them is the real variable here.

justin heywood said :

Acton said :

JC said :

Garfield said :

I hope Val is getting a fat pension like the rest of the MLA’s

Val would be more deserving of it…

Spending money on Light Rail is evil, yet giving a fat pension to someone serving 5 days in the assembly is a great idea? No wonder this town is so backwards. Val might be a nice guy, but last I checked, “giving money to nice guys” wasn’t listed as one of the reasons we collect taxes to fund our government for.

” yet giving a fat pension to someone serving 5 days in the assembly is a great idea?”
It’s the law. Want to change it?
Become an MP.
Spending money of a light rail is still evil though.

No it isn’t the law and I pointed that out to you above. New MP’s are all on accumulation accounts and have been for a decade. When will this myth about pollie pensions die?

Val Jeffrey will receive a tiny amount of superannuation for his service.

Lurker2913 said :

Russ said :

Garfield said :

I hope Val is getting a fat pension like the rest of the MLA’s

You mean an accumulation Superannuation account like the rest of them? And every other normal worker?

The old defined benefit schemes were closed years ago, only a handful of current members would be in the one for MLAs.

You left out the words “partly funded”.
You will be hearing a lot more about the ACT government’s billions of dollars of unfunded pension/superannuation soon.

Dungfungus,
all new superannuation accounts are fully funded accummulation accounts.

The old defined benefits schemes did not have “direct” funding attached to them at the time but the ACT government has been building investment funds to cover the liability for many years. They’ve currently got about $3.5B in investments out of a liability that will peak at $8-9B in the mid 2030’s. They inject $150-$200million into the fund every year on top of investment earnings.

As for “you’ll be hearing about it soon”, it’s all clearly spelt out in the budget if you’d care to take a look, it’s not like it’s a secret and it’s not like they aren’t planning for it.

http://apps.treasury.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/870900/08.-Chapter-8-Asset-and-Liability-Management.pdf

Acton said :

Spending money on Light Rail is evil, yet giving a fat pension to someone serving 5 days in the assembly is a great idea? No wonder this town is so backwards.

I seriously doubt that Val Jeffery will get any “pension” for his 5 days. The AP funds or the rules for polies brought in years ago to stop any such rorting would prevent that. But then again, anyone who has a job these days should know about how superannuation and in particular, AP funds work.

If u want to use this sort of assumed expenditure of Ratepayers funds as a reason why this town is so backwards, there are just so many examples of that from this ACT Labor/Greens Gov’t – why not the $800k spent on the failed ACT same sex marriage laws that was pi**ed up against the wall by this ACT Labor/Greens Govt. Just about every lawyer said it would fail because of Federal Laws. Even the Feds said they would over rule it. But still the ACT Labor/Greens Gov’t went ahead. If u want to look at wasted money………

Acton said :

JC said :

Garfield said :

I hope Val is getting a fat pension like the rest of the MLA’s

Val would be more deserving of it…

Spending money on Light Rail is evil, yet giving a fat pension to someone serving 5 days in the assembly is a great idea? No wonder this town is so backwards. Val might be a nice guy, but last I checked, “giving money to nice guys” wasn’t listed as one of the reasons we collect taxes to fund our government for.

Fair cop.

Acton said :

JC said :

Garfield said :

I hope Val is getting a fat pension like the rest of the MLA’s

Val would be more deserving of it…

Spending money on Light Rail is evil, yet giving a fat pension to someone serving 5 days in the assembly is a great idea? No wonder this town is so backwards. Val might be a nice guy, but last I checked, “giving money to nice guys” wasn’t listed as one of the reasons we collect taxes to fund our government for.

” yet giving a fat pension to someone serving 5 days in the assembly is a great idea?”
It’s the law. Want to change it?
Become an MP.
Spending money of a light rail is still evil though.

Russ said :

Garfield said :

I hope Val is getting a fat pension like the rest of the MLA’s

You mean an accumulation Superannuation account like the rest of them? And every other normal worker?

The old defined benefit schemes were closed years ago, only a handful of current members would be in the one for MLAs.

You left out the words “partly funded”.
You will be hearing a lot more about the ACT government’s billions of dollars of unfunded pension/superannuation soon.

Garfield said :

I hope Val is getting a fat pension like the rest of the MLA’s

You mean an accumulation Superannuation account like the rest of them? And every other normal worker?

The old defined benefit schemes were closed years ago, only a handful of current members would be in the one for MLAs.

JC said :

Garfield said :

I hope Val is getting a fat pension like the rest of the MLA’s

Val would be more deserving of it…

Spending money on Light Rail is evil, yet giving a fat pension to someone serving 5 days in the assembly is a great idea? No wonder this town is so backwards. Val might be a nice guy, but last I checked, “giving money to nice guys” wasn’t listed as one of the reasons we collect taxes to fund our government for.

Garfield said :

I hope Val is getting a fat pension like the rest of the MLA’s

Val would be more deserving of it…

I hope Val is getting a fat pension like the rest of the MLA’s

Val Jeffery has announced that he will not be standing in the October ACT Legislative Assembly election either.

It could only happen in Canberra…….

JimCharles said :

What a farce.

Val Jefferey would be the first to agree with you.

What a farce.

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.