Page 3078 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 17 November 1992
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Madam Speaker, section 4 of the Estimates Committee report, which appears for the first time this year, contains an overview of each government agency appearing before the committee. I believe that this section is a useful addition to the report and that it performs a number of functions. Firstly, it is easy for senior officers of government agencies to review the material presented about their operations and it allows them to continue the high standards they have already achieved or to improve in areas found wanting for next year's estimates process.
The breadth and range of issues covered by members' questioning gives government agencies and members of the wider community an understanding of why the process of public hearings takes so many hours - 67 this year - to complete. Particular issues mentioned by members in their questioning may lead to special and further consideration of these issues again by government agencies prior to next year's process. Again, given more time, this section of the report could be developed more extensively and comprehensively. Again for the first time, Madam Speaker, Appendix A not only identifies the dates and times at which particular agencies appeared before the Estimates Committee, but also includes the names of all officers who provided evidence.
Before I conclude, Madam Speaker, I would like to make a few closing remarks. (Extension of time granted) Madam Speaker, the estimates process which enables members to examine the expenditure proposals contained in the Government's Appropriation Bills each year is an important process. It is important that both members participating and Ministers and their officers participating regard the process as serious and an important and legitimate task of the parliament. If the process is approached in this way, the wider community can have every confidence that the ACT Legislative Assembly is acting in its best interests.
I especially wish to thank a number of people who made the completion of this task within the required timeframe possible. These people are the inquiry staff - Mr Greg McIntosh, Ms Karen Pearce, Mr Rod Power, Ms Vicki Salkin and Ms Katrina Wilson. In particular, I would like to thank Mr Simon McGill for his work in compiling the draft and final reports of the committee. Most importantly, I wish to pay tribute to the secretary of the committee, Ms Karin Malmberg, for her writing skills, in that she was able to produce a report of such high quality within a very short timeframe, for her organisational skills, which enabled the process to proceed in such an effective manner, and for her patience and understanding in providing an inexperienced chairperson - me - with the necessary wherewithal with which to complete the task.
Finally, I wish to thank the Ministers, the Speaker and their officers for their, in general, cooperative and helpful approach to the process, and my fellow members of the Estimates Committee for their commitment to the task and for the high standard of their own conduct. Madam Speaker, I commend the report of the Select Committee on Estimates to the Assembly.
MADAM SPEAKER: Members, I point out that in the very rapid process of granting Ms Szuty leave I breached standing orders. I seek your indulgence to allow that to have happened this time. In general, a second extension of time is very rarely granted. I concurred that that would be the Assembly's wish.
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