Please note: This is an extract from Hansard only. Hansard extracts are reproduced with permission from the Parliament of Tasmania.

Second Reading

[4.37 p.m.]

Mr COX (Bass - Minister for Finance - 2R) - Mr Speaker, I move -

That the bill be now read the second time.

As members will be aware, the Tasmanian Community Fund was established to directly benefit the Tasmanian community in perpetuity by providing grants to community organisations for worthwhile projects. Since its establishment, the fund has provided over $21 million to around 580 community projects in all regions of the State.

Quorum formed.

Mr COX - Mr Speaker, organisations undertaking projects supported by the fund include well-known charities, service clubs, youth organisations, arts groups, community groups assisting the disabled, health research institutions, and drug and alcohol rehabilitation centres. These organisations include Anglicare, the Salvation Army, St Vincent de Paul, scouts, girl guides, police and community youth clubs, Terrapin Puppets, theatre, Stompin Youth Dance Company, Riding for the Disabled, Cerebal Palsy Tasmania, the Royal Guide Dogs, the Menzies Centre, the Holman Clinic, and Mission Australia. They are just a small number of the many community organisations supported by the TCF.

Mr Speaker, projects funded have been as diverse as water safety training, marine rescue craft, community gardens, repair of community halls, building skate parks, toy libraries, programs addressing suicide, purchasing office equipment for volunteer organisations, musical instruments for community bands, environmental clean-ups, assisting the long-term unemployed, educating parents with young children, and preserving Tasmania's cultural heritage. Projects have been supported in all regions of Tasmania, from Strahan to Swansea, Devonport to Dover, Stanley to St Helens, King Island to Bruny Island, and many other towns and places too numerous to mention. Many of the projects have particular regional or statewide coverage.

The fund has two general grant rounds per year and receives around 250 applications for each round. In addition, the fund has a special targeted initiative program which provides funding for specific sector initiatives from time to time. The first targeted initiative supported early childhood intervention strategies; the second initiative covers the promotion and conservation of Tasmania's cultural heritage. As members would agree, both are very worthwhile causes.

The TCF has an independent board of six members who are drawn from around the State. The board has been chosen to include a mix of business and community experience and skills. Currently, one member of the board must be a current or former Treasury officer.

Mr Speaker, the bill establishes a separate legislative framework for the fund. The bill also addresses a number of administrative issues for the fund.

The TCF must currently maintain, in real terms, the money transferred from the former trust Bank Foundation. The practical effect of this requirement is that there is a pool of funds which is unavailable to the board for distribution. That pool has now grown to approximately $1.8 million. The bill removes the requirement for this amount to be maintained in real terms and therefore enables the board to have increased funding available for distribution to the Tasmanian community.

The TCF Board aims to manage the fund in the best way possible to provide the most value to the Tasmanian community. The board is particularly keen to ensure that the preserved amount is available to fund projects to improve Tasmania's way of life.

When the fund was established, a Treasury representative was included on the board to help develop a range of policies that would govern its focus and activities. This was considered appropriate at the time. Given the maturity of the arrangements governing the fund, there is no further need for this requirement. Removing this requirement will enable a broader cross-section of the community to be considered for appointment to the board.

The bill provides that the Minister for Finance will have administrative responsibility for the act.

The bill removes a number of obsolete provisions relating to the establishment of the fund. In keeping with government policy to ensure that legislation is current, the Tasmanian Community Fund Bill 2005 will also repeal the Trust Bank Sale Act 1999 as all requirements under the act relating to the sale have been completed.

Mr Speaker, these changes will enable the fund to continue to make a difference throughout Tasmania and provide for greater administrative efficiency. I therefore commend the bill to the House.

[4.42 p.m.]

Mr WHITELEY (Braddon) - It is a pleasure, Mr Speaker, to be able to respond and be still in the House. For the benefit of the Deputy Premier, who questions our terminology from time to time, the State Liberals will be supporting the bill.

Mr Llewellyn - That's good.

Mr WHITELEY - Is that good? Let Hansard show that he says that is good. Mr Speaker, we will support the bill because we have been convinced through briefings and I have also been convinced through a very lengthy discussion that I had with Mr Loughran in relation to this matter, given I had some concerns. Those concerns to some degree have been attended to by my conversation and a subsequent letter by Mr Loughran, but I will place on record my concern.

I understand fully that this bill provides for a separate legislative framework for the fund and will get rid of the old Trust Bank Sale Act 1999. I find this issue of reasonable interest given that my history as ex-bank manager was with the predecessor components of the Trust Bank and in fact I spent some time working for the Trust Bank before I left to go into full-time ministry back in the 1990s. So I do have some degree of emotional attachment to the banking history of this State and I know others do too, whether that be with the old Tasmanian Permanent Building Society, which in turn combined with the old Lanceston Bank for Savings to become the Tasmania Bank that many would remember - you would, Ms Putt, I am sure - under the very entrepreneurial direction of Mr Don Adams, the managing director at the time. We used to laugh when we first were introduced to Mr Adams via a fully produced video of him before he arrived in Tasmania, and because his name was Don Adams we used to call him Maxwell Smart. He came down with his long twirly grey moustache as the new managing director of the soon-to-be-constructed Tasmania Bank and he lived out towards Legana.

Mr Llewellyn - He had a flash car as well.

Mr WHITELEY - He had a big house up there. I am not sure whether he had a flash car or not, but he came with a lot of fanfare, and as a new employee in the banking game and ending up a manager within the bank, they were exciting times and I have to say my reflections of the demise of the Tasmania Bank are quite vivid.

Mr Speaker, you are a good historian. I do not know whether anyone has ever told you the story of having to be the local manager of a bank when there is a run on funds. I think it would be less scary to be thrown into a den of lions. I recall the day as if it were yesterday when I had to stand in front of about 300 people in the bank that I was the assistant manager of at the time and explain to this crowd of people what was occurring and why they should retain their money in the Tasmania Bank rather than draw their funds out and take it to the bank next door. I like to think I am relatively persuasive but I failed to be persuasive on that day and we could not keep up the cash. It was a scary time and I think the writing was on the wall at that time for the newly-constructed Tasmania Bank.

It was not long after that we saw the combining again of another entity, the purchase and sale of the Tasmania Bank by Mr Field and the Labor-Green accord in relation to the SBT purchasing the Tasmania Bank and it becoming the Trust Bank and my being an employee and moving over and enjoying some time there.

So I do have some emotional attachment with this and I have to say that one of the reasons I left the bank - apart from it being reasonably clear what I wanted to do - was that I was disillusioned about was being a manager in a bank in a time where people stopped mattering. You stopped being a person, a human being, and you started becoming a number and it was one of those sad things where we went from having three good organisations in the State to having one and the Trust Bank then became the Colonial Bank and then the Commonwealth Bank, which it is today.

So that is just a very brief history. But the reality is that the Trust Bank Sale Act will be repealed as a part of this legislation and the Tasmanian Community Fund was established upon the sale of the Trust Bank with proceeds going directly now through this fund into the community. I think that is a good thing. It is a part of history now that the benefits that flowed from the sale of that bank are now providing funds for worthwhile community groups. It is also important to note that the Tasmanian Community Fund is funded through an annual reserve law appropriation from the Budget, going into perpetuity, and that amount being equal to one-half of the interest savings that flow from the debt that was retired from the proceeds of the sale of the Trust Bank. At that time, one of the conditions of the establishment of the fund, as Mr Cox quite rightly said, was to retain in real terms an amount of money, going into the future, that could be used. I am not sure what that amount started off at. It probably started off at $1 million, I am not sure, but it is grown by CPI each year and we are now fast approaching nearly $2 million. I think it is $1.8 million something, so give or take a year or so it will be $2 million. Given that approximately $4.8 million is available each year now, and that is proving to be very helpful for community groups, it is my understanding the Tasmanian Community Fund Board itself felt it unnecessary to have nearly $2 million sitting in the account when it could be used for greater community benefit.

If that is where this debate stopped, we would definitely have no problem and, as I said, we will be supporting this bill. But what concerned me at the time - and I think I expressed this to your advisers, Mr Cox, when they came to brief me - was that suddenly $2 million would become available whilst it was coming from the community fund and could be available in the lead-up to an election to make particular members of the Government look like very worthwhile members in their electorate. I was concerned about that. Mr Loughran gave me the courtesy of a call. I have known Gerald for a long time. He is an old Burnie boy - I trust he is well at this time - and he spent a great deal of time on the phone just going through a bit of the history with me and also assuring me that the board acts in absolute independence. If Gerald Loughran has told me that I accept that and on that basis my concerns are generally eliminated.

I have to say that Mr Loughran understood my concerns quite clearly. He understood very much what I was saying and did not demean my concerns one little bit. What we have now is an opportunity for the board to access potentially nearly $2 million for distribution into the community. There are two rounds every year. This is what I wanted to put on the record. I am not going to move any amendment; I am not going to ask for any great commitment. You might want to give a response at the wrap up, I do not know, but I am going to suggest to you that with the injection of $2 million into the board, there probably arrives on the scene an opportunity for that board to look to take that money in a special round rather than just disburse it out over a couple of rounds and actually do something that will be of significant benefit across the State.

Rather than it be used for some specific location, an electorate-type area, for an event or a project or building or whatever, maybe here lies an opportunity for the board to take this money that up until today, was going to stay there forever, and actually do something with it so that we can all stand proud against it in a year or two's time and say, 'This money was taken from the proceeds of a bank that was three banks that employed literally thousands of Tasmanian people and gave thousands of young Tasmanians an opportunity in the job market.'

When I was starting off in the bank, 180 people worked for the Tasmanian Permanent Building Society and there were as many as 500 - I stand to be corrected - people working for the LBS and nearly that number worked for the SBT. We had literally nearly 1200 people employed by those three banks. Goodness only knows what that has diminished to today. It is probably fewer than a couple of hundred people now, so I think here lies an opportunity, Minister, for you to pass something on to the board. I know you were saying you have a hands-off approach, that is their jurisdiction, but I think therein lies an opportunity for something special to be done into the future to give a clear signal that this money came from this source, something for the whole State to enjoy and look on in 20, 30, 40, or 50 years' time as something that was very much worthwhile.

That is all I want to say. I do not expect a commitment from you but what would be nice is to hear you say that is something you would pass on to the board as a part of this debate. I accept that there is a change in there, the other change being that the bill removes the requirement for a Treasury representative to be on the board. Well, hallelujah! That is a positive move. Since when do we need the guardian angels of the Treasury sitting on these boards when we have very astute men and women on a board who know what they are doing? I am very comfortable with that.

Mr Cox - He is a very nice fellow.

Mr WHITELEY - I am sure he is. He is probably a very good guardian angel. He probably has a dollar filter that none of us could get through. I think we have very good men and women on that board who are very capable of making those decisions and to remove the requirement is not a negative move at all, it is a positive move. With that, any other words would just be filibustering. We support the bill and we wish the Tasmanian Community Fund well. It does do a lot of good. There are a lot of organisations that have benefited from it. I am part of an organisation that recently received $22 000 for a project and we are very thankful for that. For some people that might not sound a lot of money, but for a small community group or a church like I am involved in, that is a lot of money and we do appreciate it. I look forward to the fund continuing to be a source of great encouragement for small or local groups into the future.

[4.54 p.m.]

Ms PUTT (Denison - Leader of the Greens) - Mr Speaker, the Tasmanian Community Fund had its genesis in somewhat controversial circumstances, not because of the fund, of course, but because of the community debate about what was actually to be done with the assets from the sale of the Trust Bank when it was seen to be community property or potentially the property of previous investors, but there was a great deal of debate about exactly how the Trust Bank would be wound up and where the moneys would go. The Greens were very much involved in that debate. I remember being called in during the period of minority government to more or less an ultimatum from the Premier late one night in relation to this with not a lot of information, I might say, surrounding the decision that had been made, and we found those to be quite difficult circumstances.

I am not talking about the earlier circumstance in relation to the Tasmania Bank that occurred during the Labor-Green accord. I was not there then. I do not have knowledge of that, except to know that the Greens had at some level understood that there was a need for the Government to be informed and to act in relation to that, and of course have support of the whistleblower who was involved there, Alwyn Johnson, who of course copped it rather than being rewarded for his whistleblowing and it took a very long time to sort through that. But in relation to the Tasmania Bank there was controversy. We are on the record in relation to that at that time, but that is now all in the past.

The proposals contained in this legislation really seem to be sensible propositions that arise because the Tasmanian Community Fund is now a well-established body which is operating as it should, and transitional provisions obviously that were in the Trust Bank Sale Act of 1999 no longer apply, and of course they should be repealed. Further, there is obviously no longer a need for a Treasury representative on the board, and we also agree with that.

The removal of the requirement for the pool of funds to be kept by the board not available for distribution on the face of it looked as if it could be controversial, but I see that in fact the pool has now grown and there is a substantial annual amount that is flowing into the fund from that ongoing interest payment that comes to the fund. So it seems that this is really the sort of legislation that flows from a maturing of the circumstances and, as such, the Greens are prepared to support it.

I do not really think that I need to say much more except to acknowledge the good work of the fund in allocating grants to community projects of a variety of natures in all regions of the State, and to observe how important it is for groups to be able to access these types of moneys. As the previous speaker said, it is often difficult for community groups to come up with the money for the things they dream of doing, and this is a very welcome source of funding that people can apply for. I hope the Tasmanian Community Fund has a long and healthy life assisting non-government organisations in Tasmania.

[5.00 p.m.]

Mr COX (Bass - Minister for Finance) - I thank members for their contributions to and support for this bill. I think one of the positives with this legislation is the name change. The Tasmanian Community Fund now has no reference to the Trust Bank and I think that is probably a good thing. As the Leader of the Greens, Ms Putt, said, that that is now something in the past and it is probably time to move on. This allows that to happen.

Regarding the comments of the member for Braddon, Mr Whiteley, you have half guessed the answer; the board is completely and totally independent. You make reference to the $1.8 million or around $2 million; the decision on how to allocate that rests solely with the TCF, independent of government. They have specially targeted initiative programs. They already do that. They provide funding for specific sector initiatives. The first one I mentioned is the early childhood intervention strategy. The second covers the promotion and conservation of Tasmania's cultural heritage. I have no doubt that they will continue to think outside the square and continue to invest that money very wisely in Tasmania, as they have done in the past.

I neglected to mention at the start that this change was at the request of the board. They wanted to move on and I am glad that we were able to help them to do that. Can I put on the record my thanks, and it would probably be appropriate on behalf of the board too, to Mark Green. He was our Treasury representative and he will not know what to do now. Perhaps he will know what to do. Can I thank members for their support of this legislation. I have no doubt that as we move on so too will the community fund to benefit the hundreds of Tasmanians that it has already started to benefit. I thank members again.

Bill read the second time and taken through the remaining stages.