Page 2606 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 24 August 1993
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mind not only in relation to the capital works program but, as the Minister has said today, in relation to planning issues in general, but specifically land use variations that apply in the ACT. The Planning, Development and Infrastructure Committee goes through an exhaustive process on top of what the Government goes through itself. It is critical that it is placed on the public record that that is the position that our committee has adopted.
Madam Speaker, we are suggesting that, in a departure from previous years' procedures, the Treasury in future years should actually appear before the committee in public session prior to any of the other witnesses appearing before the committee. This situation will provide the committee and the public in general with an overview as to how Treasury sees the capital works proposals for the ensuing year fitting into overall government policy and into overall economic activity in the ACT. As was pointed out by a number of the witnesses who appeared before us, that is an extremely important part of what the Government should be doing - that is, ensuring that the capital works component assists in retaining, maintaining, enhancing and developing a viable building and construction industry in the ACT.
Some questions were raised by the Master Builders Association about whether the $30m cash reduction in the capital works program this year was an appropriate decision for the Government to make when, on the MBA's figures, that would lead to a reduction in the building, construction and associated industries of some 450 positions. The view that the Government put to the committee was that, with the activity generated by Commonwealth capital works expenditure in the ACT and the level of activity in the private sector, the level of activity in the building and construction industry in the ACT this year and next year was likely, notwithstanding the $30m cash reduction by the ACT Government, to be of a higher order than had occurred in the previous two years. Of that reduction, $20m is directly related to a reduction in funding of the hospital consolidation program. Funding for that program is on a downward trend.
Madam Speaker, we found some difficulty in accepting the documentation that was provided by a number of the agencies, including the Treasury. It is just not good enough for the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Committee to get, and then make public, what are basically extracts from Cabinet submissions. That is the form in which the documentation is provided to the PDI Committee. Madam Speaker, if you go to what should be numbered as page 22 and to page 23, you will notice that we have listed a range of documents which were provided by government agencies and authorised for publication. These constitute quite critical and necessary supplementary information elicited by the committee.
The questions that we posed in relation to such things as whole-of-life costings and whether or not value management techniques should be adopted in the formative stages of projects are not answered if you have a look at the documentation that was provided to the PDI Committee and, dare I say, to the Executive. That information, quite clearly, was available within the sponsoring agencies. In our recommendations we say that it is an absolutely essential prerequisite that when information comes to the PDI Committee for publication it include additional year-to-year information. We also believe that it is absolutely imperative that, where funds - in some cases quite significant sums of $350,000 to $400,000 - are allocated in bulk for minor new works, there be some indication as
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