Page 423 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 27 June 1989
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November - and its budget, of course, is brought down in August. After it has brought down its budget, it generally has a three-month period in which supply runs through and in which there is debate on the budget and so on while the Bills are passed.
What this Government is proposing is pretty much the same. With the budget being introduced in September and supply running through virtually to December, it is about the same three-month period. It gives us time to consider the budget and to get that Appropriation Bill through. So, it is no great departure from what is accepted practice in the ACT, I think.
Just one final point that I would like to make concerns Mr Kaine's and Mr Jensen's remarks about the comparability of documents in the financial area and the comprehensibility of those documents, I suppose. I take their comments very seriously indeed, and I think they are quite legitimate remarks to be made. If we are to succeed in getting Canberra people to understand better the financial arrangements here, if we are to succeed in getting a real consultative process going on the priorities and budget arrangements in the ACT, it is absolutely essential that people understand the documentation.
I accept the points that have been made on that. Members will, of course, be aware that this is the first pass at a budget in the ACT, that some documents have been prepared on a program basis and some on another basis, that there have been changes in the administrative arrangements orders during that period and so on. But I accept what has been said, and in the future we will certainly be attempting to make the documents as comparable and as readily understandable as possible. I thank the members for raising that point; it is a very important one, and one that I will be very happy to address.
So, again, Mr Speaker, I thank members for their contribution to the debate on the Supply Bill. I say again that it is a routine housekeeping matter which I do not think should trouble us greatly. It represents the continuation of government programs without any new policy proposals. I thank those members who have given an undertaking not to obstruct or delay its passage.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Leave granted to dispense with the detail stage.
Bill agreed to.
MR SPEAKER: I might add that this is indeed an historic moment. This is the first Bill to be passed by this Assembly, and it has now become law.
Dr Kinloch: Mr Speaker, would it be in order - perhaps it would not be - to congratulate the Chief Minister and to note her very sober seventeenth century frugal costume.
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