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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (27 February) . . Page.. 582 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

Capital works are an important part of the budget, entailing some $100m of expenditure, and this expenditure is probably one of the best job providers per dollar in Canberra. The committee, in its report, Mr Speaker, has recommended, first of all, that the Government forward this committee's thanks to those responsible for the excellent documentation associated with the Government's 1997-98 draft capital works program. That is our very first recommendation because the committee felt that it is just as important to recognise a very positive response from the Government to our previous suggestions as it is to be critical of the Government. On many occasions, Mr Speaker, committees are looking not so much for what is wrong but for in what areas they can improve what is going on, and the marked improvement in the information compared with last time was a huge help. In fact, it was of so much help that the committee thought that it should be available to more people.

That leads me to our second recommendation, which is that if possible it should be put on the Internet, it should be available in the Austouch booths and it should be available in libraries. The information that is available through the process now is so useful that I am sure that community groups and those interested in capital works would be able to have a much better input into how we can improve capital works expenditure and the whole range of issues associated with capital works. Unfortunately, we had such a tight timeframe this time that there were very few opportunities to get this information out to the public in any detail. The Assembly has made it quite clear to the Chief Minister that we expect to have a midyear budget. That is the commitment and we were prepared to do our bit to ensure that the Government was not held up in terms of that midyear budget.

Mr Speaker, we also made some further comments about consultation, particularly consultation in terms of putting the capital works budget together, and I would hope that that will be taken up. We would hope to see a significant improvement next year when we are working to a standard system. We would expect that there would be a reasonable timeframe next year, rather than the situation we have had this year. The last time we looked at the capital works budget was only about six or seven months ago. This time, because we want a midyear budget, it is much closer.

Mr Speaker, there is another issue that I would like to comment on. I am sure that there will be other comments made by other members. The Master Builders Association, when they were appearing before us, drew attention to the fact that the Assembly had in front of it a capital works program without much reference to roadworks within the ACT that were federally funded. They referred particularly to the Federal Highway and the Barton Highway, where funds had been earmarked by the Federal Government but there had been no attempt by the Department of Urban Services or BASAT to ensure that work was ready to go ahead. They were working hard to get it and were making sure that it was in bite-size chunks so that the local industry could compete.

The reason I mention that is that under the current system the Federal Highway is handled by the New South Wales department, the Roads and Traffic Authority, and they tend to give about $30m contracts. Very few, if any, of the businesses in the ACT can compete for a $30m contract. However, when a contract is divided into smaller areas, or what I refer to as bite-size chunks, local industry can compete with industry in other States.

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