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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 13 Hansard (9 December) . . Page.. 4065 ..

Mr Speaker, this motion picks up the recommendations of the Select Committee on the Report of the Review of Governance with respect to the operation of a draft budget for the financial year 2000-2001. This is the first time that this approach has been taken in the ACT and, as far as I am aware, the first time it has been taken by any government anywhere in Australia.

It is, necessarily, something of a leap of faith to take the approach that the Government should put on the table its budget in draft form and submit that to extensive discussion and consultation with Assembly committees and, through them, the broader community. No doubt, Mr Speaker, there will be a great many pressures on this process and a great many temptations for the process to come off the rails, but we have taken seriously the suggestion from the select committee that there should be a broader, more inclusive process in the ACT political structure with respect to that most crucial of political decisions, the ACT budget.

We propose, under the timetable outlined in this motion, to put on the table a draft ACT budget for the financial year 2000-2001 by about 17 January 2000; to have the general purpose standing committees consider those sections of the budget which relate to portfolios for which they have responsibility; to have the Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration examine the total territory financial position in an overview sense; and to have the reports of those committees produced by 28 March 2000. That allows approximately 10 weeks for consideration of the draft budget, a proposal that was sought by a number of committees, including the Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration. That will provide, I believe, sufficient time for consideration of those issues.

The Government then proposes to produce a final budget on 23 May 2000. Should the Assembly so desire - I cannot say that the Government desires this - there will be time between 25 May and 27 June for the Assembly to put in place estimates committees or some similar process to examine the final version of the budget if that is considered necessary. The Government would then expect to pass the budget in the sitting week of 27, 28, 29 June for the purpose of having the budget in place for the beginning of that new financial year, a few days later, on 1 July.

Mr Speaker, as I said, this is an exercise in trialling an entirely new process in the production of budgets in this country. I detect a measure of goodwill on the part of some members of this place towards that process; a desire to indicate that, if they are given the right to examine a budget in a draft form, they will take up that privilege in a way which allows constructive contribution to the process of making a budget for the Territory. That process is also vulnerable, Mr Speaker, to a process of disruption, and I hope and request that members do not take that approach. I commend the motion to the Assembly.

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