Page 1524 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 April 1991
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Perhaps the most notable recommendation of the Else-Mitchell committee related to government financial relations between the ACT and the Commonwealth. Justice Else-Mitchell's report found quite strongly that the ACT had been dealt with differently from, say, the Northern Territory and that there was definitely a need for clarification of the financial relations between the Commonwealth and the ACT after self-government.
The Else-Mitchell committee had noted that both my own Government and Mr Kaine's Government had presented cases to the Commonwealth for a financial agreement between the two governments, and it is, I think, a matter of regret that such an agreement has not yet been reached. The Public Accounts Committee concluded that Mr Kaine's Government and subsequent governments should continue to raise these issues very strongly with the Commonwealth because we feel that the ACT has not been dealt with particularly well by the Commonwealth and that there is a need for the kind of financial agreement that I set out in my initial approach to the Prime Minister and that I know Mr Kaine has followed up. So we have asked for that matter to continue to be pressed by the ACT Government.
Mr Speaker, the report that the Public Accounts Committee has produced is not a lengthy one. As I say, it relates mainly to follow-up, to monitoring, to progress by the Government on the recommendations made by the Else-Mitchell committee. Mr Speaker, I am not sure whether other members of the committee wish to speak on this matter, but I think it is fair for me to say that it has been a reference where the committee has not found itself divided, where we have been unanimous in our view that the report of the Else-Mitchell committee was a very good piece of work - a piece of work that is useful, not just to the Government but to the Territory as a whole, and will continue to be useful until and unless all of the tasks it recommends have been completed.
MR JENSEN (11.49): Mr Speaker, in commencing my remarks on this matter I would like to endorse the comments by Ms Follett in relation to the committee staff. I will be making some more general remarks on that matter in another debate today. As Ms Follett has said, the committee staff, particularly the Public Accounts Committee staff, provide effective, efficient and very useful research and information for the members of the committee on which we base our recommendations. I think that is a credit to Ms Malmberg and those who support her in that role.
I also support Ms Follett's comments in relation to Justice Else-Mitchell's role in this particular report. Justice Else-Mitchell, Mr Speaker, is a distinguished Canberran who has contributed much to debate on matters affecting the ACT, not only in matters financial; I seem to recall him being involved in matters planning at various stages during community discussions on planning matters, particularly related to appeals.
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