Page 4543 - Week 15 - Thursday, 22 November 1990
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MR DUBY (Minister for Finance and Urban Services) (5.24): I have only one comment to make, having listened to what Mr Moore had to say. I know that he is going to get a second chance to speak; so I would ask him whether, when he is next around, he could explain to the Assembly what his understanding of the Treasurer's Advance is.
MS FOLLETT (Leader of the Opposition) (5.24): Mr Speaker, just very briefly I would like to echo some of the disquiet that Mr Moore has expressed about the Treasurer's Advance. There are two things I would like to say. First of all, in respect of the expenditure from this advance that we have been advised of so far, it is a great worry to me that the vast majority of it has in fact been on salaries and on recurrent-type programs.
It has always been my understanding that the Treasurer's Advance was for expenditure that was either urgent or unforeseen - or of that nature. I know that in the ACT situation it is not nearly as strict as that.
Mr Jensen: Good on you, Rosemary.
Mr Duby: Yes, when a question is asked, answer the question for him.
MS FOLLETT: This seems to be causing some amusement to people opposite.
Mr Duby: Because Mr Moore did not know the answer to the question and you were terrified, you had to answer it for him.
Mr Moore: Well, if that was the case, Leader of the Opposition, thank you very much; but - - -
MR SPEAKER: Order!
Mr Humphries: That was very charitable of you, Rosemary.
MS FOLLETT: It is my pleasure to enlighten anybody who needed that much enlightenment, Mr Speaker. The second point I would like to make is that, of course, for the government schooling part of the budget, there is obviously going to have to be money drawn from the Treasurer's Advance to make up for the incorrect figure which Government members opposite voted for in this consideration of the Appropriation Bill.
Mr Speaker, if there is another way that the Government proposes to make up for that incorrect figure in the Bill I would certainly like to hear it. We have not heard it so far. It seems to me that both of the items which I have mentioned - salaries and payments in the nature of salary and the shortfall in the appropriation for government schooling - could have been handled in a different way.
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