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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 4070 ..

MR BERRY: I just wish that when he applies these standards to other people he would apply them to himself.

MR SPEAKER: Sit down. You have finished your personal explanation.

MR MOORE: I rise under the same standing order, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: Proceed.

MR MOORE: I would like to apologise most humbly to Mr Berry. I did, in fact, inadvertently mislead the Assembly on such an important matter when I said "Fairlane" instead of "Fairmont". I hope that he will be as willing to admit mistakes when he makes them.

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (11.25): Mr Speaker, following on from the comments that Mr Moore made, I think you would agree that the process that we followed this year with regard to the Assembly's budget certainly was a step forward. The budget was, shall we say, put together by you, Mr Speaker, and then discussed with me as Treasurer and with the Administration and Procedure Committee prior to the budget process. Giving the Speaker and therefore the Assembly the capacity to work up the Assembly's budget and then bring it to the Treasurer goes a long way towards the sort of approach that Mr Moore is talking about. It means that the Assembly budget is not worked up through the departmental process; it is worked up through the Assembly. I think it worked quite well this year. We certainly got agreement, I think both to this year and potentially next year, with any changes that might occur as far as the - - -

Mr Berry: That is a distortion.

MRS CARNELL: Actually, it is not. I think we got agreement to those two years. We accepted that things such as tribunal increases in wages and so on need to be added to the Assembly budget, because there is no capacity to do anything else. I believe that it was a step in the right direction. I am sure that we can work on that and come up with a process that is even better in the future.

Mr Berry: I seek leave to make a short statement.

Leave not granted.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

Part 2 - Auditor-General

Proposed expenditure - Auditor-General, $848,000 - agreed to.

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