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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (24 June) . . Page.. 1988 ..

[COGNATE PAPERS:

Debate resumed.

Schedule 1 - Appropriations

Part 4 - ACT Executive

Proposed expenditure - ACT Executive, $1,805,000 (comprising payments on behalf of Territory, $1,805,000)

MR MOORE (4.11): There are some issues that need to be raised here. I appreciate the openness with which certain areas of the Executive are dealt with. For example, details of ministerial travel are tabled regularly. I know from recent talks with members of the Northern Territory legislature that there is a very different approach there when members try to find out information about the travel of the Executive members in that parliament. The Chief Minister mentioned earlier that the Executive here is significantly cheaper than the Executives in other parliaments. I would be very interested in seeing some figures on that, Chief Minister. You would need to divide the total figure by the number of Ministers. I would be very interested to hear your response on that. Generally, I am quite keen to see that we carry out these functions as cheaply as possible.

I would like to raise travel overseas. I am aware that the Chief Minister took a trip to Beijing which she paid for from her own funds. Raising this may embarrass the Chief Minister, but I must put on record that I think that that is entirely inappropriate where the Chief Minister is travelling on Assembly business, Government business or any business to the overall benefit of the Territory. I looked at the schedule that the Chief Minister followed when she was in Beijing. It would be very difficult for anybody to argue that she went there for a holiday. Under those circumstances, I think it is inappropriate that the Chief Minister paid. If the current Chief Minister or Mr Whitecross, if he should become Chief Minister, plans to represent the ACT for good reasons - and I believe Mrs Carnell had good reasons - then they will certainly have my support for the expenditure of funds in doing that. It is appropriate for us to scrutinise travel carefully but also to recognise that it is an important part of the functions of the Government and the Assembly and not put members' families in a position where they miss out on the money that would otherwise have been available in the family if an individual had not paid for their own travel. With those few comments, I indicate that I will be supporting this line in the budget.

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