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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 04 Hansard (Tuesday, 30 March 2004) . . Page.. 1364 ..

This bill seeks to treat the notification and amendment of the budget equally for all the different alterations in the FMA and bring them into line with the current reporting arrangements for transfers of functions between departments. It will allow a complete picture to be formed of the budget when a supplementary appropriation bill is tabled. It will allow a complete cross-comparison to be made when considering the budget for a full financial year.

The bill also seeks to delete the current provisions in section 16A(2) from the act altogether. These provisions actually list the amendments that are required to be made to the budget in response to an alteration to the budget. I have been informed through the Treasurer’s office that these provisions are to be transferred to the financial management guidelines without any major alteration.

I understand the Treasurer’s argument that this level of detail is more appropriate in the subordinate legislative instruments rather than having it in the act. However, I note the removal of these details from the legislation is being done on the understanding that they will be transferred in full to the financial management guidelines. We are not removing these clauses because we believe they should not exist, but we are removing them because we have been given an assurance that they will be simply relocated to a more appropriate place.

I also notice that section 16A was only introduced to the Financial Management Act by the Treasurer last year. Less than 10 months after the section commenced operating, the Treasurer presented a bill to remove it. I also would like the Assembly to know that this is the fifth Financial Management Amendment Bill we have been presented with by the Treasurer and we are awaiting the sixth that should be tabled later this year. This clearly reflects the piecemeal approach determining the financial procedures of government and doesn’t appear to be based on a holistic approach to reform. The Assembly has seen this Financial Management Act amended on proposals from the Treasurer, on average, every six months, bit by bit, in a reactive and haphazard fashion.

This act is meant to be the bedrock of financial accountability of government. So it would be better for the government to adopt a more comprehensive approach to reform of the FMA and present the Assembly with a bill that actually works to reform the FMA in a very holistic way, as opposed to filtering out amendments as it sees fit.

As time now stands, it is unlikely that this Treasurer will be able to do this properly in the life of this Assembly, but I hope that whoever takes on the role of Treasurer in the next Assembly is able to see fit to look at how the Financial Management Act is being amended, and in a holistic approach.

This bill, however, is not unreasonable and the Democrats are happy to support it, but hopefully we won’t have continual piecemeal reform to such an important part of the ACT’s legislation.

MS TUCKER (10.01): This amendment bill ensures that all appropriation variations are reflected in amended budgets and financial statements. It is important that the annual financial statements and budgets for the territory are documents that are easy to understand and complement each other.

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