Page 4557 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 20 November 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
ESTIMATES - SELECT COMMITTEE
Report on the Appropriation Bill 1991-92 -
Government Response
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (3.14): Mr Speaker, I seek leave of the Assembly to make a ministerial statement on the Government's response to the Select Committee on Estimates report on the Appropriation Bill 1991-92.
Leave granted.
MS FOLLETT: Mr Speaker, I am pleased to take this opportunity to respond on behalf of the Government to the report by the Estimates Committee on the 1991-92 Appropriation Bill. The committee's report produced 17 recommendations. I do not propose to deal now with each one individually. The Government has prepared a detailed response to each recommendation and I will present that document to the Assembly.
Before going further, Mr Speaker, I would like to thank the committee for their report. The detailed examination of government expenditures carried out by the Estimates Committee is a key element in our approach to open government. It provides an important opportunity to get to the bottom of departmental spending and I believe that this year's committee has made a strong contribution to this process.
Mr Speaker, I note the committee's comments about the improved level of information available to it this year, largely as the result of recommendations made by the 1990-91 Estimates Committee. The introduction of program explanatory notes has clearly improved the quality of the committee's deliberations, and I will be pleased to see these improvements continue.
This year's committee also made a number of recommendations aimed at further improving the information available to the committee and to the public. As I said when tabling the 1991-92 budget, there is a strong community spirit in the ACT and an understanding by a great many people of the Territory's financial circumstances. My Government fully supports the view that the public should have readily available access to information relating to the performance of all programs in the ACT Government Service.
There are a number of mechanisms available to disseminate this information and my Government has been reviewing the roles that the budget papers, explanatory notes and annual reports play in producing this service. Part of the review has been to determine the purpose of each of the documents and to ensure that duplication in the preparation and provision of information is minimised wherever possible.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .