Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (29 June) . . Page.. 2224 ..

Proposed expenditure-Part 4-ACT Executive, $2,987,000 (payments on behalf of the territory).

MR QUINLAN (11.58): I make the brief comment that this figure of a little less than $3 million sits in stark contrast with the previous line of $83.3 million for the Chief Minister's Department, equating to something around $800 per household in the ACT.

MR KAINE (11.59): At this stage I want to draw attention to the total cost of running the executive. We have a budget for what is called the ACT Executive of $2.987 million. I think the community needs to be aware of what the total cost of this executive is. That cost does not stop at $2.9 odd million that is quoted as the executive budget.

If you go through the budget papers department by department, you discover there is a great deal more money spent on supporting this executive than just that which presumably is sufficient to run only their offices. The 12 non-executive members of this place cost the public $7.1 million and the five executive members cost $2.987 million. There seems to be a rather significant per capita cost of maintaining members in this place.

That is not the only point I want to make. If you go through the budget, you in fact discover that there is close to $20 million embedded in the departmental budgets, the sole purpose of which is to provide ministerial support and policy advice. So the cost of maintaining the executive is not $2.987 million; it is about $22 million to $23 million. I think that it is time for somebody to stop and have a look at the costs of this executive. I think it is starting to reach almost scandalous proportions.

Let me refer to some specific figures in the budget paper. At page 35, under the Chief Minister's Department, the cost of strategic policy activities is shown at approximately $6.5 million. Reference is made to the health department on three different pages-pages 107, 109 and 111. The three figures for ministerial and cabinet advice are $1.008 million, $970,000 and $800,000. So that is about $2.8 million for Health and Community Care.

At page 147 we find that under the Department of Urban Services the figure for policy advice and ministerial support-this is very explicit-is $2.846 million. At page 219, the figure for policy advice in respect of the justice department-this is a specific section of the minister's budget-is $4.657 million. At page 282, under the education department, the figure for, again, policy advice-and this is quite explicit-is $2.551 million.

So, not only does it cost us $2.987 million, just on $3 million, to maintain five ministers in this building, it costs the public nearly $20 million for activities within the five major departments that are explicitly devoted to ministerial support. That is what those budget figures imply.

I do not know whether any minister, the executive as a whole, the cabinet or anybody else has ever stoped to look at what it is costing to keep these five people on the second floor of this building informed as to what departments are doing. I do not know whether anybody has stopped to analyse it. I have taken these raw figures out of the budget. For example, we know that there is expenditure that does not appear in the budget. We know, for example, that when the Chief Minister goes overseas on a trip, that charge is not

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .