Page 2379 - Week 11 - Thursday, 2 November 1989
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I noted with interest Mr Duby's comments about the Government's response to this report of the Estimates Committee. It highlights a quandary that we face in this place, with the Government not having a majority and the Assembly, having considered in detail its budget, making a number of recommendations which are not compatible, I suspect, with the thrust, if not the detail, of what the Government wants to do.
The Government was very keen for the Estimates Committee process to be established, which itself is a very strange thing because governments traditionally are never keen to have budgets scrutinised very closely. Of course, the Government would be quick to say that they were keen because they are an open and consultative government and they have a great desire for members of the Assembly and members of the public to see what they are doing and to discuss what they are doing, question it and so on. But I do not think you need a very great dose of cynicism at all to reject that view as being idealistic.
Mr Whalan: You would not need any over there.
MR HUMPHRIES: I did not catch that, Minister, but I am sure I will when I read Hansard.
Mr Berry: You would not need any extra over there.
MR HUMPHRIES: Any extra? We have got plenty over here. We are overflowing with cynicism. There were clearly strategic reasons for wanting an Estimates Committee, and it does raise the question now of how the Government will respond to the estimates and the report. Mr Duby said that it is not the role of the Estimates Committee to criticise government expenditure or to modify or change government policy. I do not know how the Government responds to that if the purpose of setting up the Estimates Committee was to provide members with the chance of putting a counter view to the Government.
Of course, the Government has to assess whether it wants to respond to those claims or not. The message I am getting is that there must be some confusion about just how the Estimates Committee report will be responded to by the Government. Obviously, I hope, like others, that it will be assessed on its merits and the Government will take advice and change course where that is appropriate. But I certainly do not think, as Mr Duby has said, that because there were 11 members sitting on the committee and only five Government members we can expect the Government to be forced to make a change of policy. That does not follow.
An example of where estimates are useful and produce positive results is where members suspect the Government or its administration of not addressing particular issues or of overlooking matters of administration and detail that members, with the benefit of information which does not appear to other people, were able to pick up.
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