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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (19 November) . . Page.. 3768 ..

MR SPEAKER: Order! It being 5.00 pm, I propose the question:

That the Assembly do now adjourn.

Mrs Carnell: I require the question to be put forthwith without debate.

Question resolved in the negative.

Debate resumed.

MS McRAE: What is most clear is that we are very firmly advocating that the Government take heed of these recommendations and make every effort to meet the requirements of making future budget papers as comprehensible as possible, along the lines of the suggestions of the Estimates Committee.

The second area to which I was going to draw members' attention was the recommendations that deal with what can be loosely labelled as policy, or perhaps bad policy, that has come to the Estimate Committee's attention in the course of the inquiry. For instance, the area of greatest concern was the claim that this budget would produce 2,700 jobs. It became clear during the course of Estimates Committee hearings that the definition of a job was a very fluid one. This is not acceptable. The committee was not satisfied with the sale and lease-back arrangements and has asked that these be further reviewed. The committee was not assured that the criminal injuries compensation levy had been thoroughly thought about. Again, we have recommended that it be given further review, as we did for the Kick Start program.

The new arrangements announced by the Education Minister in regard to preschools have now been overturned, as we saw in Ngunnawal and the part-time arrangements in some of the preschools, and the $15 levy on registration policy also has had to be modified. In all cases, these were areas about which the Estimates Committee quite rightly expressed some concerns. I remind members that this was a unanimous report. It is not just an attack on the Government. It is the correct job of the Estimates Committee to raise these concerns. The Government has already responded to some of these concerns, and we sincerely hope that it will respond to the others that we raised in a similar vein. The rest of these recommendations in this area of the Estimates Committee's concern, as I say, will also require further work. This is committee work at its best, Mr Speaker - open scrutiny, fair and thorough criticism, and positive recommendations.

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