Page 3326 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 12 October 1993
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brought forward, so that when there are savings to be made you can take advantage of the savings over the whole course of the year instead of perhaps for only three or four months. I think that at the macro level it can be argued very strongly that to bring the budget forward earlier can be a good thing, both from the expenditure side and from the revenue side.
The second impact is on those people, community groups, who are dependent on the budget for their financing. I know from my personal experience that over the years since self-government and, indeed, even before, in the days of the old advisory bodies that I was a member of, there was a regular annual complaint, soundly based, that community organisations relying on the budget for their funding did not know until well into the financial year, first of all, whether they were going to be funded, and, secondly, to what extent they were going to be funded.
I have tried not to be specific about dates; but, if you could bring the budget forward and bring it down, say, in June, people would have a pretty clear indication of whether or not they could expect to be funded, and they could plan accordingly to gear their operations right from 1 July to their expected level of funding. They would not get the funding necessarily at that point; but they could plan on it because it is customary for the Government, once the budget is on the table, to say, "This is the level of funding that we are proposing for certain organisations", but it is not customary to do it until the budget is on the table. Of course, it would be unreasonable to suggest, before the budget has been brought down, what level of funding is going to be provided. A lot of these community organisations, the budget dependent organisations, could say with some certainty right from the beginning of the year, "We know that we are going to be funded and we have some idea, at least, of the level of funding that we can expect. We can get on with providing the service which the Government has agreed that we should be funded to provide". You can argue that there are very significant community organisations which would benefit from having the budget brought down earlier.
The third point that I want to mention is one that is probably dearest to the hearts of members of this Assembly because it would, I believe, allow a more comprehensive Estimates Committee process.
Mr Wood: If it would allow a better one.
Mr Connolly: An Estimates Committee lasting from June to October. What a thought!
MR KAINE: They hate to be accountable. The Estimates Committee process is the most direct way in which members of this Assembly can make the members of the Executive accountable.
Mr Connolly: We were almost agreeing with you, Trevor, up to that point.
MR KAINE: I expected this response; but, in fact, I am not suggesting that the Executive is not responsive now. What I am suggesting is that some of the members who go into the Estimates Committee are not well prepared, are not as well prepared as they might be, because the budget is brought down - - -
Ms Follett: Your members, this is.
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