Page 3607 - Week 11 - Thursday, 22 September 2005
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I am happy to support the proposal for a territory authority credit facility to allow authorities to borrow from territory accounts up to a limit established through the appropriation process. The key flexibility offered by this arrangement is that an authority may borrow and repay the territory on more than one occasion during the year, rather than needing those funds to be appropriated on each separate occasion.
The controls exerted in the first instance by the Treasurer, and subject to scrutiny and disallowance by the Assembly, would seem to give sufficient security. It has been argued that authorities need the independence and flexibility to borrow on the open market. This arrangement whereby the control rests with Treasury and the responsibility to lend—or borrow, if necessary—rests with the territory is both safer and less expensive.
I would also like to make a comment on the statement of intent process that is being amended by this bill. Many’s the slip between policy and programs and any mechanism to make the policy direction clearer and more transparent is welcome. This bill builds in a more formal relationship between the responsible minister and a territory authority in the preparation of a statement of intent before it is given to the Treasurer. The only requirement of the authority is that it must take the minister’s comments into consideration. So we will need to watch how it works.
As I have already indicated, I will in the detail stage put an amendment as to the governance arrangements for territory authorities. This bill includes amendments to the general governance arrangements covering all authorities and, consequentially more or less, amendments to the acts covering a number of authorities, including ACTION, the ACT Insurance Authority and the University of Canberra.
The bill specifies what ought to be considered by a minister when appointing people to the governing board of an authority. Reference is made to other government policies, which would seem on inspection to suggest some consideration of the gender and ethnic diversity of the board, although the only specific criterion is that the person have the skills to contribute to the goals and objects of the authority.
I intend to seek to amend that section so as to require the minister to consider the capacity of the board and also to consider the social and environmental impact of the actions of the authority. I will explain in more detail my thinking in suggesting this amendment when we come to debate it.
MR QUINLAN (Molonglo—Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development and Business, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Sport and Recreation, and Minister for Racing and Gaming) (5.53), in reply: I thank members for their acceptance of the bill in total. In the interests of brevity, let me just say in relation to the amendments that will be moved that the government will accept those amendments that bring the bill into line with the annual report legislation and incorporate them into the Financial Management Act as the cornerstone act.
The government does not agree with reverting to quarterly reports. The reason is that the report for the first quarter is not a great deal of use in terms of where the organisation is heading in the longer term. You will note that in the legislation elsewhere there is a requirement for the organisations to keep government informed of major issues
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