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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 10 Hansard (18 October) . . Page.. 3175 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

(e) any other related matter;

(2) the Committee be composed of:

(a) one Member to be nominated by the Government;

(b) two Members to be nominated by the Opposition; and

(c) two Members to be nominated by either the Independent Members or the ACT Greens;

to be notified in writing to the Speaker by twenty minutes after the commencement of this debate;

(3) the Committee shall report by 15 December 2000;

(4) if the Assembly is not sitting when the Committee has completed its inquiry, the Committee may send its report to the Speaker or, in the absence of the Speaker to the Deputy Speaker who is authorised to give directions for its printing, circulation and publication.

(5) the Committee is authorised to release copies of its report pursuant to embargo conditions and to persons to be determined by the Committee, prior to the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker authorising its printing, circulation and publication; and

(6) the foregoing provisions of this resolution so far as they are inconsistent with the standing orders, have effect notwithstanding anything contained in the standing orders.

Mr Speaker, I have moved this motion today on behalf of the government-I admit that this is a day on which ideally it would not wish to have to move such a motion-to reflect concerns raised about the draft budget process followed in respect of this financial year by the previous Select Committee on Estimates.

Mr Speaker, the government was trialling for this financial year a very different and, I would say, quite revolutionary process for involving the broader community-in particular, Assembly committees-in the process of drafting budgets. Today, we have a proposal to modify the draft budget process to reflect some of the criticisms which have been made by members of this place, particularly members of the Select Committee on Estimates, and to refine and improve that process.

Members will recall that the committee was critical, among other things, of the fact that there was no opportunity, with the presentation of a draft budget and its referral in components to portfolio committees of the Assembly, for any one committee to obtain a broad overview of the way in which the draft budget as a whole operated. Mr Speaker, it is most important, I would contend, for there to be a process of scrutiny of the budget process. I accept and the government accepts the criticism that there is a need also for people on a committee to have the opportunity to view the whole of the budget picture and make comments about the whole of the budget picture.

Mr Speaker, a matter relating to, for example, the allocation of funds between different portfolios is a matter that quite properly should be commented upon by a committee and the passing of this motion would allow that to occur; that is, there would be a select committee which would report in December and would have the capacity to indicate to the Assembly how it believes that the budget for next year should be constructed with respect to issues such as the dividing of the pie between different portfolios or the different departments of the ACT government, the spending priorities adopted in a tentative form at least by the government, the meeting of unfunded liabilities, the changes to the mix of outputs which is suggested by the government and, perhaps very

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