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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 6 Hansard (17 June) . . Page.. 1883 ..
MR SMYTH
(continuing):trend of where the current situation will take the ACT budget will be a problem, not only for this government but for any government if it is not addressed quickly.
I see-again, this is my opinion, not the opinion of the committee in this case-the effect, possibly, of the amalgamation of Health back into the department. There are very large deficits-indeed, the largest deficit recorded since accrual accounting came in. The recommendations call on Mr Corbell to make sure that the numbers for the health department are clarified.
There are a number of other issues, particularly planning. The minister agreed with some of the suggestions of the committee, so they do not appear as recommendations, one of which was increased reporting. I think we gave the Minister of Planning a slight scare last night. He walked into the deliberative room at about half past eight last night, and we said, "Good timing, Mr Corbell. We're just going through the planning report, and we've got a few more questions to ask". He looked a bit stunned. He just wanted to talk to Mrs Cross.
There is a recommendation, though, that the sale of Horse Park stage 1 be referred to the Auditor-General. The detail we got was not sufficient for the majority of the committee, and that warrants further investigation. As for Disability, Housing and Community Services and the interest in the Treasurer's Advance of $10 million for fire safety, suffice to say that $16 million was allocated to fire safety more than a year ago, supposedly because it was urgent. Currently $2.1 million has been spent-so much for urgent. There is a recommendation that unused TA at the end of each financial year should be returned to the central financing unit or its equivalent.
It was also noted that we seem no closer to the decision on Currong apartments, despite the use of scratchies. As for Urban Services, of particular interest to the committee was parking at Tuggeranong College and the need for all students to have equal access to parking. Continuous registration has been rejected by the majority of the committee. That is perhaps the final insult to the former opposition spokesman.
I think the committee would generally agree with me on the highlight of the committee process. We are much indebted to Mr Gordon Davidson who, for the purposes of Hansard, informed us that the new trench at Mugga tip would be "this wide"and then proceeded to determine that there were three units that went in the "this wide", much to the mirth of the committee. The other light side of the day was when one officer, asked how he came to a number, said, "It's just punt."We got a little bit of a light side in there as well.
There is much more, particularly in education, that needs to be discussed. I commend the report to members, particularly on whether the interest subsidy scheme should continue or not. We note that the government has knocked it off-
Ms MacDonald
: We still don't agree with you.MR SMYTH
: Ms MacDonald makes the point that some of us do not agree, and there was a long, hard argument very late into the night. We ended up deciding that it was on ideological grounds that we would divide, and on that there is much more to say. I commend the report to the Assembly.
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