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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 9 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 2170 ..

MR KAINE (continuing):

Of those recommendations that do not deal with the process, there are a limited number of specific recommendations that suggest that some members of the Estimates Committee would like to see a different financial provision for some activities and some functions from the one the Government has provided. That is a matter of opinion. I refer to recommendation 14. It states:

The committee recommends that the Government take steps to provide adequate funds to implement the ACT mental health plan as a matter of urgency.

That reflects the fact that some members of the committee thought that the provision for the implementation of the ACT mental health plan was not sufficient. That is an opinion that they are entitled to have. Those of us on the committee, whether we agreed with that or not, were not prepared to die in the ditch about it. We said, "Okay, put that recommendation to the Government".

But then we get into an argument about what adequate funds are. The Government can argue, "We have already looked at that, and we believe that we have provided adequate funds". Some members of the committee think the Government have not. Where do we go from there? The final decision and the final responsibility rest in the hands of the Government. They have to justify the money. They have to raise the revenue. A year from now, when we are looking at their performance this year, the Estimates Committee, the budget review committee or whatever is established then will be looking to see how well they did.

There are only four recommendations that suggest that there was inadequate funding. The fourth of those has to do with the education budget. That recommendation is worded a little differently from the other three. In the first three, the Government is asked to take steps to provide additional resources to police illegal dumping and things of that kind. The one in connection with the education budget, however, asks that the Government "consider". It does not recommend that the Government provide more money; it asks the Government to "consider". That was very carefully worded, because one opinion in the committee was that the committee should say that the Government should restore the $3.8m.

Ms McRae: Because it was a broken promise.

MR KAINE: You have had your say, and you did not make your point very effectively. There was one opinion that the Estimates Committee should firmly recommend that the Government add the money to the budget. There were others of us who did not believe that that was necessary. Some of us believe that the education budget is more than fair; that education as a function is getting more than its fair share of the taxpayers' money and that to add more money to it would build inequities into the system. Rather than have two recommendations from the committee, we reached a compromise on the wording and recommended that the Government should "consider" this matter.

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