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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 05 Hansard (Friday, 14 May 2004) . . Page.. 1973 ..

very interesting points about how wonderful such a facility would be for the people of Ginninderra.

Similarly, I was pleased to see capital funding flowing through for the new Kippax library. There was also extra funding for registered training organisations to assist with the delivery of new apprentices, and that is something that I have also been calling for. I am glad to see that the budget has followed through on this.

It was also very pleasing to see the Office for Women finally being allocated project funding and some of the recommendations of the status of women committee report finally being implemented some 19 months after the report was presented.

I think one sector of the community who really missed out in this budget was children and young people. The government has ignored the recommendations of the community services and social equity committee. In fact, we have yet to see a revised government response to that report. There was no funding for a commissioner for children and young people, yet somehow $340,000 for a small business commissioner was found. Young people make up 25 per cent of the ACT community and they deserve better. They deserve to be supported, not ignored and have their issues swept under the carpet.

I am also doubtful that the territory revenue will be as low as predicted. Yes, the housing slump finally appears to have arrived, so perhaps the projections of reduced stamp duty revenue may prove accurate. The Treasurer always indicates that they try to make sure that they have conservative elements so they do not work beyond their reach. But this government does have a long track record of underestimating revenue, so it is likely that we will overall receive a modest increase in revenue next year relative to the current financial year, based on the government’s past track record.

What will need to happen if the government finds that they have, indeed, substantially underestimated revenue? I would be quite happy to come back into this place and debate a supplementary appropriation bill that identifies and addresses the identified needs of the community, that provides funding to playgroups, that provides funding to youth night shelters, that provides initiative funding for a commissioner for children and young people, that provides funding to support those who are struggling in our education system to achieve educational outcomes, that provides funding to work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and that provides funding to help address the ongoing water shortage problem.

I think one of the interesting aspects of the budget, however, was the fifth budget paper, the supplementary paper Framework for future budget presentations: discussion paper. Estimates committees have continually raised concerns about how budget papers have been presented over the last few financial years and there has been ongoing discussion about the role of the Office of Sustainability and how we can achieve triple bottom line reporting. So it was pleasing to see that this document has been put out for consultation and discussion. Budget paper five notes that we should view this as a first step towards a complex task, and further issues will emerge as the government embarks on this reform.

The report also identifies stakeholder involvement as key to triple bottom line sustainability measurement to ensure effective communication and broad participation. However, budget paper five does not contain any timeframe for consultation or for

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