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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (27 June) . . Page.. 2038 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

wrong, and that the Assembly ought to reconsider the idea of squeezing in an Estimates Committee process in such a short time. We now have, as I said, three passes over the budget in the course of this calendar year, and, frankly, I very much doubt whether this particular pass over the budget is going to significantly assist anybody, particularly the ACT government, in producing better budgets or improving on the budget now before the house.

Members will be aware that this report came down today. I understand that we are to start the debate on the budget tomorrow and conclude it on Thursday, or possibly in the early hours of Friday morning. It simply is not possible for the government to present a response to this Estimates Committee report. There just is not time. Even if the public servants concerned worked around the clock to be able to respond to the issues and correct the many errors of fact that are contained in the report-I drew attention to some of those in my remarks this morning, and I will add some more in a moment-it would not be possible for the government to properly consider the report before tabling it. The cabinet will not meet between now and Thursday morning. So I have to say I think it is most unfortunate that this process has been employed, and I hope that we will not use it again in future years.

Mr Speaker, what this report does in large part is rake through all of the submissions made to the committee and, as best I can see, take up the cause of every single organisation or body which has complained about the treatment they have had in the budget. Every organisation that missed out somewhere along the line has had recourse to this committee, and every single person's claim, however meritorious or unmeritorious, has been adopted by the committee. So we see a host of recommendations to spend more money.

The committee recommends that the government assure the Assembly that Family Services will not be underfunded or provide supplementation; that it provide supplementation for expected wage increases for nursing staff; that it allow funding for the Civic Youth Centre and the Junction Youth Health Centre to be located in the new section 56 development; that the government should make provision for a youth specific detoxification service in certain circumstances; that the government should allocate additional funds to the dental program; that the government should consider the allocation of an additional $10,000 per year to the Canberra Blind Society; more funds to the ACT Down Syndrome Association; review the basis on which funds are provided to the community sector for accommodation services for people with disabilities; and additional funding in future years to address the unmet accommodation support needs of young indigenous offenders in the ACT. I thought we were doing that, by the way.

The committee also recommends that the government provide interim funding for Care's legal service, pending the outcome of a needs assessment, and recommends that further staff reductions proposed by PALM not proceed.

Mr Speaker, every single person who has complained, apparently without exception, has had their case taken up by the committee and supported. Perhaps someone has been overlooked. I would be interested in knowing who came to the committee saying, "We believe we should get money," who was not supported in that claim, if anybody.

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