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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 14 Hansard (10 December) . . Page.. 4809 ..

Clauses 1 to 3, by leave, taken together

Debate (on motion by Mr Wood) adjourned.

[COGNATE BILL:

Debate resumed from 3 December 1997, on motion by Mr Whitecross:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

MR SPEAKER: Is it the wish of the Assembly to debate this order of the day concurrently with the Annual Reports (Government Agencies) (Amendment) Bill 1997? There being no objection, that course will be followed. I remind members that in debating order of the day No. 2 they may also address their remarks to order of the day No. 3.

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (11.58): Mr Speaker, the proposed amendments to the TOC Act seek to amend section 22 of the Act. This is to change the deadline for the provision of annual reports to the voting shareholders. The change reduces the time available to TOCs to prepare their annual reports, making their timeframe slightly shorter than private sector corporations in this regard. Members should note that this shorter timeframe does come at a cost, which may lessen the competitiveness of TOCs in relation to their private sector counterparts. Having said that, Mr Speaker, the Government acknowledges that this timeframe is consistent with the Financial Management Act and the Financial Management Act deadline for the preparation of whole-of-government annual consolidated financial statements. The amendments also go part of the way to enabling TOC annual reports to be available for the Estimates Committee. For these reasons, the Government supports the proposal to amend the TOC Act.

However, Mr Speaker, if the only intent of the legislation is to enable reporting in time for the Estimates Committee, the TOC Act is the only Act that needs to be amended. The TOC Act should be amended to require the submission of annual reports to the responsible Minister within 10 weeks after the end of the financial year. Such an amendment is consistent with section 7 of the Annual Reports Act and satisfies the intention of a shorter reporting timeframe.

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