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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 3 Hansard (8 April) . . Page.. 721 ..

Ms McRae: Double the time that is going to be spent on the other. It is completely irrelevant. The road rescue fee was not the work of the previous year, may I remind you, Mr Humphries. The road rescue fee and preschool policy - - -

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I cannot compete. I give up. I will sit down.

MS TUCKER (4.52): Mr Speaker, I will speak to both issues that have been raised. I will speak first to the question of the Estimates Committee looking at the annual reports. The Greens will be supporting that. I think it is quite appropriate that there be consistency, in that the same group would be looking at the annual reports as looked at the budget. I will also be supporting Mr Berry's proposal that we have an extension of time to look at estimates. This is because I share Ms McRae's concerns. I have had a lot of difficulty as a member of the Estimates Committee in getting the answers that I have wanted. I have had difficulty in even asking the questions that I have wanted to ask.

I was very unhappy with the Government's performance in last year's estimates process, when we did not get answers to questions that were on notice until after we had reported. I do not believe that that is showing respect for the work of the Estimates Committee and for the right to scrutinise in depth. The community expects that we have that ability. I was very uncomfortable, to say the least, on a number of occasions when I had been asked to inquire into certain areas and I felt that I was not able to do that because the time was not there to do it. I thought there was a possibility that we could propose moving to the sitting weeks in June so that we would actually have at least another week, which was a compromise; but I understand that no other members were interested in supporting that. So, what I will do at this point is say that I am definitely supporting Labor's proposals. I will not support Mr Humphries's amendment to Labor's amendments.

MR KAINE (Minister for Urban Services and Minister Assisting the Treasurer) (4.54): Mr Speaker, I will speak on both Mr Berry's amendments and Mr Humphries's amendment. I have heard what Ms Tucker and others have said about this process. I happen to be strongly of the view, and I think everybody in this Assembly knows it, that the review of the previous year's performance is properly a function of the Public Accounts Committee. That is what the Public Accounts Committee was established to do - to review the accounts of the Government. One might ask, "What is the purpose of the Public Accounts Committee if the Estimates Committee is going to do it?". I will set that argument aside.

There are two processes. One is to review the Government's estimates which it has put forward to this place for approval and to be appropriated to the Government for its business next year. The other is to look at what the Government has done in this current fiscal year after the year is over. They are two different things. I submit that, because the Government is separating these by a period of some months this year, Ms Tucker will not have the same difficulty as she has had in the past, because we will not be confusing the issue of whether we are looking at what the Government did last year or whether we are looking at what the Government proposes to do next year.

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