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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 6 Hansard (18 June) . . Page.. 1712 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

Such information complements the input reporting in the monthly financial statements; it is the other half of the whole and, without reporting on the delivery of outputs, through those performance reports, we simply do not have the whole picture of how governments are working. Knowing that governments are underspending on, say, housing maintenance, as they have done consistently through this financial year, means nothing unless we are also getting performance reporting on whether they are actually delivering on their performance measures in that area of housing maintenance. That is why we need output reporting as well as input reporting, and that is what the proposals in my legislation will do.

Mr Speaker, because of Mrs Carnell's approach, I have found it necessary to propose amendments to the Financial Management Act. Mrs Carnell has not been willing to implement the previous Act in the spirit in which I believe it was intended. The amendments to section 26 relate to monthly financial statements. The second set relates to the quarterly performance reports. The third set relates to information contained in the budget papers. In relation to monthly financial statements, adoption of these amendments will ensure that the Assembly does receive monthly financial statements, and receives them in a timely way; rather than the current arrangement by which they are required to be tabled within three days of the Chief Minister and Treasurer receiving them, which has allowed the Chief Minister to play games by saying, "I received a draft; but I have not received a final".

This has resulted in extreme delays in the receipt of these statements. We have replaced it with a fixed timetable after the end of the month. The legislation requires them to be tabled or circulated within 15 days of the end of the month. I do not believe this is an onerous requirement. Although it is, of course, a fairly tight requirement, I believe it can be done. The Chief Minister obviously needs a firm timetable to work within, and this legislation provides it. Just in case the Chief Minister thinks that she can comply with the timetable by cutting the amount of information in the reports, there are amendments designed to ensure that the level of financial reporting remains as it has been in the past, at a detailed level. The Chief Minister's record on this matter shows that she cannot be trusted and that she needs statutory requirements, and that is what these requirements are.

Mr Speaker, in relation to quarterly departmental reports, the amendments require such reports to be tabled within 30 days of the end of the quarter. The type of information required in such reports has been set out in the provisions of the Bill and mirrors the requirements under purchase agreements. It is not an additional administrative burden on agencies; these reports are produced for Ministers anyway. The Assembly needs information, as I said before, to enable it to keep the Government accountable and to scrutinise the Government's performance so that we know how they are performing and whether they are delivering the outputs, not just how many inputs they have consumed.

Mr Speaker, the third package of amendments relates to the budget papers. The amendments to the information required within the budget papers have been included because the Chief Minister and Treasurer has repeatedly shown that she cannot be trusted. To allow for maximum scrutiny of the ACT budget and the performance of the government of the day, it is important that the papers include comparative figures, year on year. What is the Government's record on this matter? In 1995-96 the budget did not contain comparative figures for the previous financial year.

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