Page 3330 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 12 October 1993
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Members know, of course, that the supply period is just an interim arrangement to enable the conduct of government business prior to the passage of the Appropriation Bill through the Assembly. I think that any reduction in the length of the supply period would provide for an earlier implementation of government policies which respond to changes in community needs. Supply, as you know, is based on a no-change policy; it is simply a continuation of the status quo, very largely. So for that large chunk of the year, five months usually, the new budget of the Government is not really implemented, and I think that is regrettable.
Madam Speaker, there are a couple of issues that I think we need to be aware of in looking at an earlier budget. As I said, we would have the Premiers Conference result out of the way and we would know where we stood on the general revenue grant, but it would not be until the Federal Government brought down its budget that we would know the detail of specific purpose payments, and that would be rather late in our budget planning. However, Madam Speaker, I think that experience has shown us that, when it comes to specific purpose payments, there are not usually great dramas, and changes in those payments, if they occur, are relatively small; so I think it is possible still to draw up the budget based on the information that we already have in regard to specific purpose payments, and if there is any change it ought not to be critical to a State or Territory's own budget.
Another issue that I want to touch on is that, if we were to bring forward the budget substantially, as I believe we should, the budget outcome for the earlier year may not be available at the time you bring down the budget. Again, Madam Speaker, this is not a critical matter because we always review the budget throughout the year. We have a mid-year review of the budget and we usually have a fair idea of where each program is going. However, the budget outcome has not been known until a substantial time after the end of the financial year. It would have to be taken on faith that that outcome was not going to be widely out of kilter with the predictions. In the years since self-government there has not been a budget outcome that has been dramatically out of whack with the original budget estimation, but that is a matter that I think members ought to be aware of. We would, in effect, be drawing up the budget without having the final detail of the previous year's budget outcome.
Madam Speaker, as I said, this is a matter to which I am giving some attention. I think the practicalities of the issue deserve some attention. There is no certainty at this stage about an earlier presentation of annual budgets, and there can be no certainty even about the Commonwealth's intentions, as they have not committed themselves yet to a date. Issues like the timing and the outcome of the 1994 Premiers Conference and the Grants Commission update are, as I said, yet to be resolved; but I would expect that, if the Commonwealth were to bring down an early budget, those issues would have to be dealt with earlier as well. I understand, Madam Speaker, that the Commonwealth is also working on those sorts of practicalities. As I have said, if the Commonwealth does bring down an earlier budget I think it is very much in the best interests of the Canberra community for the ACT Government also to bring down an earlier budget.
Mr Kaine had a great deal to say about the Estimates Committee process and the possible benefits to the Estimates Committee process of an earlier budget, and I take his point on a great deal of his comment. I think that over the past four or five years we have seen constant improvement in the amount of information that is available on all aspects of the budget and, also, we have seen constant improvement in the amount of scrutiny that goes on of all aspects of the budget.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .