Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 9 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 2184 ..

MS FOLLETT (continuing):

Further, the Assembly requests the Government to bring forward amendments to the Appropriation Bill 1995-96 to implement these recommendations, or to report to the Assembly on its reasons for not agreeing to the recommendations prior to the debate on the Appropriation Bill 1995-96.

In moving this motion I believe I am putting forward the only responsible course of action by which the Government can be made to alter its budget in a manner that is correct in law and that reflects the majority view of this Assembly.

Mr Speaker, the motion that I have moved is the only course of action for making changes to the budget that is consistent with the self-government Act, which is the ACT's constitution. This is a view which has been made very clear in the legal advice which has been put to both the Government and the Opposition on the question of amending the budget. It is clearly the case that only the Government, in the person of a Minister, has the legal power to make amendments to the budget that increase the amount of money appropriated for any of the various functions of government. Mr Speaker, I realise that this interpretation of the self-government Act will be put to the test when we come to debate the Appropriation Bill in the detail stage, and I trust that you have armed yourself with all the advice you possibly can muster to enable you to rule on all of the permutations and, I should say, convolutions that have been suggested as possible amendments to the budget.

MR SPEAKER: Lotto would be easier, Ms Follett.

MS FOLLETT: I think that is right. Mr Speaker, no government in the history of this Legislative Assembly, or its predecessors, has commanded a stable majority of its own on the floor of the Assembly. Nor, in my opinion, in view of the electoral system in place in the Territory, can any future government reasonably expect to command such a majority. Given this fact, it is critically important that those of us in this chamber today, as the Territory's legislators, get these processes for dealing with the budget absolutely right. There is no margin for error in this. A sloppy approach to allowing amendments to the budget could very well lead us down the slippery slope to the American model - if in fact you could dignify it with the name - of budget-making, which has led to uncontrollable deficits and the present impasse between the President and the Congress which we are currently watching nightly on the television news. I also believe that I am accurately reflecting the majority will of this Assembly as expressed in the Estimates Committee report which has been tabled.

There are a number of points that I want to make in relation to what my motion proposes. First of all, Mr Speaker, members should be aware that this year's Estimates Committee report has done something which is of unprecedented significance in the life of this Assembly. This is the first time that an estimates committee has ever recommended that a government make changes to its budget priorities and has specified in detail the functional areas in which those changes ought to be made.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .