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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (27 August) . . Page.. 2556 ..

MR OSBORNE (continuing):

The Cabinet membership would not be confined to members of a single political party but be drawn from the whole Assembly. The self-government Act prevents the Assembly from forcing this Ministry on the Chief Minister. However, it is within its power to withdraw confidence in her should she ignore the direction.

The Assembly standing committees would then be recast so that they directly reflected ministerial portfolios. Each Minister, for want of a better word, would chair the relevant committee and all legislation could be forwarded to it. I would also like to see the departments held answerable to the committees, but I do concede that this step may be going too far. This aspect will perhaps need to be explored more fully.

Finally, the Assembly would be given direct power over the formulation of the budget by combining the Public Accounts Committee and the Estimates Committee into a Finance and Economics Committee. This would not be a committee of review but one that examines the budget before it passes into law. There are a number of ways in which this could work, Mr Speaker, and again the idea needs to be fully developed, but I do have an example. The Minister or the chair of the committee introduces draft estimates of expenditure to the Assembly. These are referred to the relevant portfolio committee, which must report by a certain date. The committees report to the Assembly, or are deemed to have reported, with or without comment or recommendations.

These reports stand referred to the Finance and Economics Committee for review. In due course, that committee reports back to the Assembly with comments or recommendations. Following the Assembly's consideration of the report and its adoption, or adoption with amendments, or rejection, or the formulation of any recommendations the Assembly may care to make, the relevant Minister will then introduce the major appropriation Bill, which will then be considered by the Assembly.

This process allows the Assembly considerable say in the expenditure of the Territory's money without offending that section of the self-government Act which says that only a Minister may raise a charge against the public purse. Under this process the Minister exercises his Executive role in appropriating public money after the Assembly has exercised its democratic role in having a say.

Over the last couple of months I have run these ideas past the Clerk of the Assembly and he believes it is possible to implement these changes without amending the self-government Act. Although I am the first to admit that no system in the world is above the venal behaviour of some politicians, I am convinced the system can be changed for the better and I am determined to make this idea my focus for the remainder of this Assembly's life. In the end no system can function without the goodwill of good people committed to making it work.

The major hurdle in trying to change the system is not the law or the as yet unimagined problems change might bring. The real problem is the two-party system. I prophesy, Mr Speaker, that both parties will say that this sort of change cannot work and will advance multiple plausible reasons to support their case. The real reason for their

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