budgets. the primary concern that got that that will then That’s you’ve directly flow on to what the spend is in education in the NT? Yes. And with that figure, been providing to me by the MR RYAN: that’s Education and she stressed an estimate. I can only Minister’s advisor, it’s go on the figures that are provided. MS CHESTER: Yes. good. Okay. That’s MR RYAN: Yes. MS CHESTER: And be asking them about that tomorrow. we’ll MR RYAN: Yes, okay. MS CHESTER: a new number to us. That’s Sure. MR RYAN: MS CHESTER: And I suspect that number, and this might help in terms of contextualise your concerns that that number is probably assuming that we do what - a cold turkey policy change, so we move to that new system tomorrow. MR RYAN: Right, yes. MS CHESTER: And no transitional phasing or compensation. So there’s in our draft report, one of the biggest challenges got in this phase of we’ve the inquiry is whenever you make a change to something like the HFE, the key formula, which is how we work out the relativities, and particularly our starting point is got a really wide relativity band of you know WA we’ve down in the 30s and the Northern Territory off the scale. MR RYAN: Yes. MS CHESTER: That to move to such a change, you would need to do it very gradually over time, such that it you know materially doesn’t disadvantage particularly the smaller or the fiscally weaker states. So that’s one of our guiding principles for the transition part that we wouldn't want to see the fiscally weaker territories and states materially disadvantaged. So in our draft report. that’s And so part of our priority now is to try to consult with the states and territories on what would a transition path be that would ensure that? And to some extent, the way the GST pool grows over time and if you transition
budgets. That’s the primary concern that you’ve got that that will then directly flow on to what the spend is in education in the NT? MR RYAN: Yes. And with that figure, that’s been providing to me by the Education Minister’s advisor, and she stressed it’s an estimate. I can only go on the figures that are provided. MS CHESTER: Yes. Okay. That’s good. MR RYAN: Yes. MS CHESTER: And we’ll be asking them about that tomorrow. MR RYAN: Yes, okay. MS CHESTER: That’s a new number to us. MR RYAN: Sure. MS CHESTER: And I suspect that number, and this might help in terms of contextualise your concerns that that number is probably assuming that we do what - a cold turkey policy change, so we move to that new system tomorrow. MR RYAN: Right, yes. MS CHESTER: And there’s no transitional phasing or compensation. So in our draft report, one of the biggest challenges we’ve got in this phase of the inquiry is whenever you make a change to something like the HFE, the key formula, which is how we work out the relativities, and particularly our starting point is we’ve got a really wide relativity band of you know WA down in the 30s and the Northern Territory off the scale. MR RYAN: Yes. MS CHESTER: That to move to such a change, you would need to do it very gradually over time, such that it you know doesn’t materially disadvantage particularly the smaller or the fiscally weaker states. So that’s one of our guiding principles for the transition part that we wouldn't want to see the fiscally weaker territories and states materially disadvantaged. So that’s in our draft report. And so part of our priority now is to try to consult with the states and territories on what would a transition path be that would ensure that? And to some extent, the way the GST pool grows over time and if you transition
28112017-darwin-hearing-transcript.docx