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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 9 Hansard (23 November) . . Page.. 2591 ..

Dictionary, 2nd edition to mean 'a plan or policy to be followed'. It is not clear in what sense the term 'appropriation unit' is being used in the Bill as, in some cases, it would seem to be referring to an organisational unit whose status is not entirely clear - 'appropriation units' do not completely match up with either administrative units or programs - and in other cases, the term 'appropriation unit' seems to be referring to a category of expenditure.

3. Further difficulties may arise as clause 9 of the Bill relevantly provides that money is to be taken to be appropriated for the purpose of payments under Acts administered by appropriation units. Legally, Acts are administered by the administrative unit that has been charged with the administration of an Act under the Administrative Arrangements pursuant to section 14 of the Public Sector Management Act 1994.

4. Clause 9 in this year's Appropriation Bill is worded differently to last year's Appropriation Act where the money was appropriated "for the purpose of payments under Acts administered as part of a program". There was no suggestion that the program actually administered the Acts.

5. I am not of the opinion that the issues noted above would render the Bill unworkable or void, as in some cases, there is a marriage between administrative units and appropriation units. However, I note that the scheme employed in the Appropriation Bill 1995 could cause evidentiary difficulties in terms of precisely linking expenditure to appropriation. Part II of the Schedule may assist in clarifying some of the problems that might arise.

6. There could be a number of ways to resolve the issues identified above, eg by including a definition of 'appropriation unit' in the Bill. I would be happy to provide assistance on this aspect should the matter be pursued further.

7. Notwithstanding these matters, for the reasons set out below, they do not affect our views on the operation of section 65 of the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) ACT 1988 (Cth) ("the Self-Government Act").

Question 1

8. Michael Moore, MLA has publicly canvassed the possibility of seeking to amend the Appropriation Bill 1995 by moving an amount of money from the Treasurer's Advance to one of the education appropriation units.

9. The ability to amend the Appropriation Bill-1995 turns on the interpretation to be given to section 65 of the Self-Government Act. Section 65 provides:

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