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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 3 Hansard (8 April) . . Page.. 714 ..

MS McRAE (continuing):

Two years back the Estimates Committee made a very clear recommendation that we have six weeks to work on this. That came unanimously and with the backing of all concerned. There is absolutely no reason that I can see why we are unable to take as much time as we want. What is it that Mrs Carnell is trying to hide? What is it that this Government does not want to be looked at? That is the fundamental question. Why cannot we take all year? What difference does it actually make? None.

Mrs Carnell: Well, why have an early budget?

MS McRAE: I do not know why we are having a budget in May, Mrs Carnell. We have still to understand why you are having it on 3 May.

Mrs Carnell: No, we are not. We are having it on 6 May.

MS McRAE: As I understood it, and I was not part of the negotiations, the budget was coming in in June. I never in my wildest dreams thought it was going to be on 6 May. That came completely out of the blue, and particularly since last year the argument went that we had to have our budget after the Federal budget, and we delayed it until after the Federal budget. This year there is a completely new argument: It has to be before the Federal budget.

Mrs Carnell: But you said you did not like it. You complained. You said you wanted it earlier.

MS McRAE: We did want it earlier, but we were never given the option of being told that it would be before the Federal budget and that it would have to be passed by the end of June.

The question that has to be asked is: Just what is this Government trying to hide? Just what is the problem? What is the problem, when finally people said, "Look, give us a break. Give us a bit of time. Let us run an estimates process where everybody on the committee will be able to take their time, read the papers properly, and ask all the questions they want to ask."?

Mr Berry: And call them back when necessary, too.

MS McRAE: And call bureaucrats back. We have never had that option. That is the consistent complaint from my fellow estimates travellers. I, as chair, have had to say to people, "Tough. No. We are not doing that; we are not doing this. You do not have enough time. Focus and get on with it". That is fine, if that is what the rest of the Assembly thinks is a good process. That is fine, if that is what the Government wants to do. But the bottom line question is: Why? What is it that they want to hide? What is it that they want to do to the rest of us Assembly members?

There is only one message coming through to me: They do not want us to have time to look at these papers properly. They do not want a process where everyone feels comfortable, where everyone has a chance, where everyone has a chance to come back. They do not want to give their bureaucrats time to explain properly, to come back and clarify points. Worst of all, they want to run yet again a process like the one we had

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