Page 3924 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 15 December 1992
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MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (9.42): Madam Speaker, to answer Mr Moore's point, the statutory position already locks responsibility onto the Treasurer to maintain the accounts; so, there is your accountability. The accounts are published in the budget. I should have added something for those who have not read this part of the budget papers. Obviously, the Opposition had not, because they were not aware that it was in the budget papers. They led members to believe that there had been only some fleeting reference in the Budget Overview. We not only have published what next year's estimates are; we have, in accordance with the practice shown throughout the budget papers this year, gone through with estimates through to 1995-96.
Mr Cornwell: Which page?
MR CONNOLLY: Page 167 of Budget Paper No. 3. So, in terms of accountability, there is your accountability. This is part of the budget process. That is the fundamental accountability of any administration, published in the budget papers which are taken to the Estimates Committee for more thoroughgoing scrutiny than anywhere else. Merely saying in another section that the Treasurer will approve it adds nothing. I suspect that it will add a Liberal Party press release saying, "South Australian State Bank scandal stopped in the ACT by the Liberal Party", although at 9.45 pm on a Tuesday I doubt whether anyone in the media would be gullible enough to run it. That is the only thing it adds.
Really, the purpose of our general legislative program is to disambiguate. I am really not an anti-disambiguitist. In fact, I am very much a strong disambiguitist. We are constantly bringing in statute law revision Bills to use, as Mr Stevenson is fond of saying, plainer English. Basically, there is no point, we would say, in being disambiguitors. There is no point in having two additional words in Acts to create ambiguities when you have your clear accountability provisions by way of an account established under the Audit Act, with all that that entails, and maintained by the Treasurer, and when you have the documentation published in the annual budget papers and subject to the most rigorous scrutiny through the estimates process. This adds nothing and I, with the Government, will be opposing the amendment.
MR DE DOMENICO (9.44): Madam Speaker, I am going to be very brief. I have listened to all the arguments, too, and I would like the - - -
Mr Lamont: You are being convinced by your colleagues.
MR DE DOMENICO: Madam Speaker, do I have the floor or is it the interjector from the peanut gallery?
MADAM SPEAKER: Please continue, Mr De Domenico.
MR DE DOMENICO: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I am aware that under the Audit Act the Treasurer is responsible for establishing and maintaining the account. The question now, Madam Speaker, is this: Should the Housing Trust, under this trust account, decide to increase its off-budget amount by an unspecified amount of money, who is responsible? I do not think the Minister has answered that question. I believe that he has not answered that question.
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