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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 1 Hansard (15 February) . . Page.. 39 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

Let us not beat around the bush. What we put on the table with this draft budget, Mr Speaker, is unprecedented in the amount of interest, the amount of detail, and the amount of raw information supplied to the community about our proposed budget for this coming financial year than has ever been the case anywhere in Australia certainly and, to our knowledge, anywhere else in the world. Mr Speaker, I was prepared for lots of criticism about this budget, but the criticism that we had not put enough detail in the document certainly took me by surprise.

Mr Speaker, if I have found the wrong document and Mr Wood has a different document that he is referring to which contained the many, many more details, I welcome correction under standing order 46 at the end of question time. Mr Speaker, it seems to me that the detail is here in this document in a way which has not been present before.

MR BERRY: My question is to the Minister for Education, or anybody else who likes to interrupt him along the way who thinks they can do a better job.

Mr Kaine: Give Mr Moore a go. He is okay.

MR BERRY: Well, he has not had a go yet. He might as well grab somebody else's question.

MR SPEAKER: Can we have a question, please?

MR BERRY: The question is asked, Mr Speaker, against the background of the Government's oft stated commitment to accrual accounting - stated ad nauseam, in fact. Could the Minister confirm that cash held by schools and colleges, details of which he so gratuitously released publicly, have to be used, amongst other things, for essential items such as heating and maintenance? Given this fact, is it unreasonable for schools and colleges to have substantial sums set aside at the beginning of the school year?

MR STEFANIAK: Mr Speaker, in relation to that, no, it is not. Yes, of course schools have them. For many years they have used moneys which are set aside for those purposes. There are a number of interesting points here. Firstly, as I have said in the media before on this issue, I congratulate schools for doing such a good job over a three-year period with enhanced school-based management. The money there, Mr Berry, is meant to be used. Schools have to be prudent. They have to plan for reasonable expenses during the year, including expenditure on items such as you mention.

The department gives money to the schools during the school year. In fact, the first payment has been made for this year and an additional $18.5m will be paid progressively to schools during the year. Mr Berry, when you see school bank accounts go from round about $5.5m in December 1996 to well over $20m, to $23m and a bit, at the start of the school year, that takes into account their first payment and also some payments out. Whichever way you look at it, whatever you do with the figures, Mr Berry, it is about a three-fold increase.

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