Page 2266 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 17 August 1993
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In addition, I have arranged for the tabling of a statement which provides a reconciliation by program between the original 1992-93 budget appropriations and the final outcome. Although not required under the Audit Act 1989, this statement responds to concerns expressed by the Public Accounts Committee and the 1992 Estimates Committee and reconciles, by program, all budget adjustments for 1992-93 in the statements I have tabled in the Assembly today and during 1992-93.
Madam Speaker, I would like, first, to make some comments on the 1992-93 budget outcome and I do so with some justifiable satisfaction in terms of this Government's record for financial management of the ACT. The 1992-93 Consolidated Fund budget anticipated a cash deficit of $64m. The outcome as reflected in the attached papers was a cash deficit on the Consolidated Fund of only $1.5m. This takes into account presentational issues raised by the Auditor-General in his audit report No. 5 relating to the treatment of provisions. The Consolidated Fund outcome comprised a recurrent surplus of $59m which was available to finance the major part of the $60.5m capital deficit. In accordance with uniform budget presentation standards, this outcome removes the previous transfer between recurrent and capital budgets. Final expenditures for the year were $31.1m or 2.4 per cent less than the amounts provided for in the budget, and final recourse to the Treasurer's Advance was limited to $8m compared to $12m provided in the budget.
Recurrent revenues in the Consolidated Fund were $12m or one per cent above budget estimates, primarily due to higher than expected receipts from stamp duties on shares and marketable securities and conveyancing. Capital revenues were $19m or 14.7 per cent above budget estimates, primarily due to higher than expected returns from commutations of land rent and the timing of land sales and higher auction prices compared to budget estimates. No new borrowings were required in 1992-93 to fund the capital deficit. The benefits of this will accrue in future years as savings on debt servicing. Reserves in the Consolidated Fund available to meet future years' expenditure are $40m greater than estimated at budget time. Again this result will assist in the financing of the 1993-94 and future budgets. Further details on the Consolidated Fund budget outcome will be provided in the 1993-94 budget papers.
Madam Speaker, the results achieved in 1992-93 provide an extremely strong base for the ACT to manage the major reductions in Commonwealth funding in 1993-94 and in future years. It is the third budget I have been responsible for which has achieved minimal or no borrowings. It represents a record of financial management, in the face of unprecedented reductions in Commonwealth funding and the effects of a national recession, which I do not believe has been matched by any government. It is a record which contrasts most remarkably with the record of the Alliance Government and the rhetoric of the Opposition. Madam Speaker, the budget outcome for 1992-93, I believe, speaks for itself in terms of the ability of my Government to combine the principles of sound financial management with social justice.
I would now like to make a few comments on the papers that I have arranged to be tabled today. Firstly, the Treasurer's quarterly financial statement relates to the public account of the ACT rather than simply the Consolidated Fund which is the focus of budget appropriations. The outcome for the total public account, however, reflects the strength of the outcome of the budget itself.
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