Page 4449 - Week 15 - Thursday, 22 November 1990
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Thursday, 22 November 1990
__________________________
MR SPEAKER (Mr Prowse) took the chair at 10.30 am and read the prayer.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT FUND (REPEAL) BILL 1990
MR KAINE (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (10.30): Mr Speaker, I present the Community Development Fund (Repeal) Bill 1990. I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
The Community Development Fund was established in late 1981 by the Commonwealth Government. The sources of revenue for the fund are levies on gaming revenues, including Lotto, Tattslotto, New South Wales and Victorian lotteries, Soccer Pools and gaming machine taxation. The purpose, method and manner by which payments can be made from the fund are set out in the Community Development Fund Act of 1981.
The fund was established at a time when there was no self-governing body in the ACT. It provided a mechanism whereby a proportion of funding for community groups was isolated from the Commonwealth's annual appropriation based budget process and retained in the local community. The arrangements also provided the community with the opportunity to participate in the process of determining the funding of community programs through advisory committees.
With the advent of self-government and the passing of financial control to the ACT, the Government can retain the best features of the current arrangements while recognising that there is no longer a reason for the fund to exist.
The Government is proposing new financial arrangements, while ensuring that community groups currently funded through the CDF will continue to receive assistance. That assistance will come in future from the Consolidated Revenue Fund. The Government has given a commitment that funding allocated to recurrent programs during 1989-90 will be maintained in real terms in 1990-91 and 1991-92. The major advantage of the new arrangements will be the freeing up of CDF-type revenue for distribution for a wider range of community purposes than is possible under current arrangements. The Government has agreed to additional recurrent expenditure of $1.9m and additional capital expenditure of $0.9m to community groups in 1990-91.
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