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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (2 December) . . Page.. 4390 ..

Clause, as amended, agreed to.

Clauses 6 and 7, by leave, taken together

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (11.14): I move:

Page 3, line 8, omit the clauses, substitute the following clauses:

"Territory budgets

6. Section 11 of the Principal Act is amended by adding at the end the following subsection:

`(2) The budget papers shall include material that facilitates a comparison, for each appropriation unit, between the budget for the Territory for the previous financial year and the proposed budget.'.

Departmental budgets

7. Section 12 of the Principal Act is amended by adding at the end the following subsection:

`(4) The budget papers shall include material that facilitates a comparison, in respect of outputs, between the budget for the department for the previous financial year and the proposed budget.'.".

Mr Speaker, I understand that this also was agreed to at the round table. This amendment is to more clearly define what is meant here. The amendment makes clear what the budget papers shall include - what sort of material - Mr Speaker. It says that the budget papers "shall include material". This acknowledges that there are a number of methods available that can be used for comparability purposes and that the preparer can use his or her discretion as to what constitutes such material, which may include reconciliation statements, explanation statements, notes, and so on. I think it was agreed at the round table that it would not include backcasting. I think that those words were the ones that everybody at the round table was happy with.

MR WHITECROSS (11.15): Mr Speaker, I will speak to this amendment because Mrs Carnell has claimed that her authority for this is the discussion at the round table, in which I participated on behalf of the Labor Party. I am afraid that Mrs Carnell is incorrect. I would urge Mr Moore and other thinking people on the crossbenches to pay attention to this, because Mrs Carnell was wrong in what she was saying to you. The proposal put forward by the Opposition states:

A proposed budget shall be prepared in a form that facilitates a comparison, for each appropriation unit, between the budget for the Territory for the previous financial year and the proposed budget.

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