Page 3912 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 15 December 1992
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Mr Kaine: We are concerned about public accountability.
MR CONNOLLY: And rightly so, Mr Kaine; but, as I say, we are not talking here about government instrumentalities borrowing without any recording in the budget papers of money for recurrent ongoing government purposes. We are talking here about a program announced in the budget papers of projected borrowings for the future year for home buyer assistance, and at the end of the day these dollars - - -
Mr Kaine: It is like the health budget; it gets out of control.
MR CONNOLLY: Mr Kaine, that is a silly thing for you to say. One would assume that as a former Treasurer you have a good understanding of administration. We are proposing here a program to facilitate funds being borrowed on the basis of the Government's good credit rating, which will then be put into real estate in this Territory for home buyer loan schemes, thus generating - - -
Mr Kaine: We have a good credit rating, so we will never make a mistake.
Mr De Domenico: Is that borrowing unlimited, though?
MR CONNOLLY: I will say it for the third time because I know that you have to say it slowly and repetitively for the Liberals: The borrowings are announced in the Government's budget program, projected for the future year.
Mr De Domenico: What if the borrowing is greater than the amount announced in the budget program? Who is responsible?
MR CONNOLLY: If Ministers lie, they are responsible. As I have said, the borrowings will be published, as they have been this year, in the Government's budget papers, and this Assembly can scrutinise the Government to ensure that it keeps to those borrowing programs, just as it can for any other form of government borrowings. There is no difference. They are necessarily structured through Audit Act accounts, and the full accountability mechanism applies here as to any other form of government borrowings. I would say to the Liberal Party that these are borrowings that at the end of the day are going into private sector constructed bricks and mortar, providing assistance for the building industry here and jobs for Canberrans.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
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