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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 6 Hansard (23 May) . . Page.. 1720 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

this legislation. That is something we have to acknowledge and face up to, because it is a real issue for this Territory. It ought to be a real concern to the Government. It is certainly a real concern to the Opposition, because it will affect the quality of decision-making and the pace of reform in other areas if so many resources across the Public Service are tied up in this financial reform agenda.

Debate interrupted.

ADJOURNMENT

MR SPEAKER: Order! It being 5 o'clock, I propose the question:

That the Assembly do now adjourn.

Mr Stefaniak: Mr Speaker, I require the question to be put forthwith without debate.

Question resolved in the negative.

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT BILL 1996

[COGNATE BILLS:

AUDITOR-GENERAL BILL 1996
PUBLIC SECTOR MANAGEMENT (AMENDMENT) BILL 1996]

Debate resumed.

MR WHITECROSS: I was drawing my comments to a close. I am sure that I have made the points that I wanted to make. We will continue to pay attention to the way this legislation is implemented, because we are concerned about some of the issues I have raised. We will be interested to see that the new information that this approach will give us is used effectively and in the interests of the Territory, not in ways which will undermine services or reduce commitment to keeping existing schools and other community facilities open. We will continue to look at this legislation in those areas. The principles underlying the legislation are, of course, sound and we are happy to support them, but we will be taking careful note of how these principles are applied.

MR MOORE (5.01): Mr Speaker, since coming into this Assembly in 1989, one of the things that I have been interested in, and I think almost all members have been interested in, is to ensure an openness about what we do, particularly with reference to financial management. A range of people in different governments have taken significant steps in the past to do so. It was most interesting to me, as a member of the Public Accounts Committee in the Second Assembly, to look at the issue of accrual accounting and how

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