Page 2355 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 29 August 2007
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Across the board, we often see expenses rising for community support services, peak groups, environment groups, the RSPCA—you name it—but their grants remaining close to static. For grant and donation dependent non-profit organisations, which generally have few reserves, when expenses continue to rise—and we are not just looking at wages; we are looking at quite a number of expenses, some of which are actually due to government revenue measures: rentals for premises, utilities taxes on electricity bills, increased petrol costs for transport—it means that they have to learn to be good at fundraising, even though it is not their primary objective. They do not have the skills to do it and it would be a great pity if already scarce energy had to go in that direction. It also creates a situation where only committed staff remain for any period of time, forgoing pay rises which would be the norm in any other sector.
I would like to highlight the need for a community sector representative on the ACT Skills Commission, as the commission has the potential to address many skills shortage problems. It would be negligent to leave the community sector behind again and also not to benefit from the particular expertise that they have for what is called the third sector. The community sector, the non-government sector, the not-for-profit sector is the third biggest employer in Australia and I think it deserves a bit more attention.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Proposed expenditure–Part 1.6—Territory Banking Account—–$214,000 (capital injection) and $12,288,000 (payments on behalf of the territory), totalling $12,502,000.
MR MULCAHY (Molonglo) (4.22): I do not have too much to say on this particular budget item but I do note that the government now plans to have minimal cash holdings in government departments and that, as a consequence of that, the territory banking account will involve the investment of surplus cash balances. Government departments will hold only so much funding as is necessary for a short period of operation. I think from memory it was in the order of a couple of weeks of expense.
The new arrangements were part of a process where legislation was rushed into this place earlier this year to allow further discretion to the Treasurer to advance money to departments who might find themselves financially stretched by unanticipated payouts to retiring employees. In fact, you will recall that the legislation was so rushed and so ill considered that it had to be withdrawn and redrafted after my office reported a significant drafting error that had the effect of nullifying the legislation. Fortunately the error did not affect the funds invested by the territory bank account, but it did take an unnecessary amount of our time. It is important that the Treasurer keep his eye on the ball when it comes to these matters.
This year the Treasurer will authorise loans of public money to the Department of Treasury for a revolving credit facility for the community housing project. Loans will also be made to Actew Corporation, ACTION buses and the Land Development Agency, the Treasurer being empowered to make such loans under the Financial Management Act 1996.
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