Page 4090 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 24 November 1993
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I could pull out a couple of others where there appear to be some anomalies. For example, on the government schooling program, which Mr Wood would be interested in, I am sure, according to this he is heading for a major overspend on his budget. He has spent nearly $60m of a $200m budget already.
Mr Wood: Don't worry about that, Trevor.
MR KAINE: We have heard "Don't worry about that". We hear it from the Minister for Health frequently, and we always end up with a budget blow-out which he then tries to disguise as good management. Presumably we are going to get the same story from the Education Minister this year: "We had a budget blow-out, but it was the result of good management". I do not know what is happening in Program 5, ACT Financial Management. Against the recurrent budget of $87m they have spent only $7m in the first quarter. Are we heading for a major underspend there? Is this another part of the Chief Minister's good management program whereby, at the end of the year, we end up $30m ahead on revenues, $30m behind on expenditures, and we have a $60m windfall profit all because of good management?
I notice also that, under Capital Receipts, we are clearly headed for another one of those big windfall profits that we got last year, because against the $52m projected revenue from land sales we have already, in the first quarter, collected close to $20m. Year after year our performance on the sale of land is way in front of what the Treasurer and the Minister for Land came forward with as their estimate for the year. Last year, as I said, it was nearly $30m over what they projected. It looks like we are headed for much the same sort of result this year. For heaven's sake, can they not get something like a decent estimate of what is happening in their organisations? Or do they just stick their finger up in the wind and say, "Which way is the wind blowing?"? These figures indicate that the budget is getting significantly out of whack in some areas.
The other thing that I would like to comment on is the ACT Borrowing and Investment Trust Account, because there are some significant variations from what one would have expected in this account. The Chief Minister just gave us a burst and said that she will not accept some of the PAC's recommendations on this matter because everything is under control and it is all accountable. Well, here we have the report for the first quarter and, against projected annual receipts of $705m, in the first quarter she already has $327m. She is nearly halfway there in three months. Is this the result of good management, bad management, or just good luck? Who knows? There is not a single explanation. The Chief Minister and Treasurer, she says, is accountable to the Assembly for this matter. Well, let us have some accountability. Let us have some explanation as to what is happening in this account.
On the expenditure side your budget is $705m in round figures and you have spent only $150m. If pro rata is not a reasonable basis to operate on, if you can come to me and say that it is reasonable to receive nearly half your expected receipts in the first three months and it is reasonable that you expend less than a quarter of your expenditure in the first three months, and there are good reasons for that, why do you not tell us what they are?
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