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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 05 Hansard (Tuesday, 4 May 2004) . . Page.. 1705 ..

This caused us great concern because when we have ministers and their departments come before us to give evidence, in good faith, we expect that information to be given to us in its entirety and not edited. Other people should not decide how much the committee should and should not get. It is my understanding, not only from the advice I have received from the Clerk of this Assembly but also from others who have been working on the estimates process far longer than I, that the committee does have the right to seek this information and expect to get it unedited, in its entirety.

I am concerned that did not happen with this minister in this case. I say again that I came into this process with an open mind, giving everyone the benefit of the doubt that they would do the right thing. I am not basing it on an opinion or an assumption, I am basing it on the facts that I, as the chair of this committee, and my committee members have received—on correspondence that has come before our committee and is evidence. It is a serious matter when a minister in this place chooses to mislead an estimates committee, which I have been advised is a very serious instrument of this Assembly. Therefore recommendation 8 asks the minister to apologise to this Assembly for withholding relevant information to the Select Committee on Estimates in relation to the Phillip Oval matter and perhaps explain to us why he chose to do so. Recommendation 9 reads:

The Government allocate funds for the immediate purchase of a mobile humidicrib.

Given that many members and my committee members know the importance of the future of our city and our children, such a small but significant piece of equipment should have been allocated for in previous budgets. We felt it was an important thing to include, which should have been included in this appropriation, and therefore we have made it a recommendation. Recommendation 10 reads:

The Government report back to the Legislative Assembly on the first sitting day in August 2004, as to how much of the $103.330 million contained in the bill was actually spent by 30 June 2004.

One of the things that came across during the estimates process was that there was concern that the money asked for in this appropriation was not going to be expended before 30 June. Where there is an appropriation for money that is needed now rather than later, there was concern that perhaps most of the money that has been asked for will not be used before the next budget or before 30 June. So the estimates committee decided it would like the government to report back to the Assembly by August and advise how much of this $103 million will actually be expended.

Recommendation 11: the committee decided that it would be happy to pass this appropriation with the omission, however, of the $800,000 intended for the purchase of a lease over Phillip Oval. Upon examination of the information and correspondence received the committee could find no reason why the government had decided to make a purchase of this oval, given that offers had been made by other groups in the ACT who were prepared not only to purchase it but also to maintain it in future out years. The minister neglected to put to anybody the significant cost of that to taxpayers in the out years.

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