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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 9 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 2190 ..

Ms Follett: They are the only ones that involve money.

MRS CARNELL: Yes. Ms Follett makes a very interesting point. I would like to quote Ms Follett from page 4316 of Hansard of 20 November 1990. Ms Follett said this:

... the function of an estimates committee is one of accountability for the money that the Government has spent and is proposing to spend.

I might just say it again:

... the function of an estimates committee is one of accountability for the money that the Government has spent and is proposing to spend.

There was no mention of policy setting, no mention of the Estimates Committee having as its role a grab bag of new policy initiatives. That was a very definite statement from Ms Follett that the role of the Estimates Committee is one of accountability for the money; not deciding whether it is the way to go, but accountability for the money that the Government has spent or is proposing to spend. This motion is suggesting new money. This is suggesting money that the Government has not proposed to spend at all. It is an interesting turnaround for Ms Follett, but obviously she has changed her views over that period.

There is no doubt that the Government has considered, and will consider over the next hour or so, the recommendations that are in front of us here, and all of the other recommendations of the Estimates Committee. The Estimates Committee is a very important committee, but its role, very definitely, is to look at the budget and to make sure that the public has been well served - that accountability is there for the money that the Government spent in the previous 12 months, or the previous financial year, and the way that the Government is planning to spend the money in the next 12 months. In other words, to look at the amount of money that is proposed to be spent in each area to ensure that accountability is there.

I must admit that in all the questions I was asked by the Estimates Committee there were very rare questions about the figures that were in front of us. There were lots of questions about policy directions. There were lots of questions about things that were not in the budget or were not in the previous financial statement, but very few about the actual accountability issues that the Estimates Committee is supposed to be set up for. I can guarantee to this Assembly that the Government has looked, and will look over the next couple of hours, at all the recommendations of the Estimates Committee, very definitely and very seriously.

MR KAINE (12.23): Mr Speaker, I have to say that I find this, in light of the history of this Assembly, a rather curious motion coming from the Leader of the Opposition, a former Treasurer. It has been well established, I think, over the life of this Assembly, that only the Executive can appropriate or seek to appropriate money. It cannot be done by the ordinary members of this place. Yet, in a sense, that is what this motion attempts to do. So, for the first time, the Leader of the Opposition is truthful in one sense when she says that this is a unique year in that for the first time the Assembly seeks to increase the Government's budget. That is the unique thing about it, and that despite the fact that

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