Page 1896 - Week 05 - Thursday, 6 May 2010
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To properly address the skills shortage and promote productivity growth, we need to be providing relevant educational opportunities. Whilst we are pleased that there is a significant educational investment, no mention is made of new green skills in the additional $12.5 million of funding for skilling the ACT. An investment of this magnitude to improve the skilled workforce within a “budget for our growing city” requires a commitment to green skills. Productivity growth is essential, but we need to recognise where the economy is going. I hope the government makes a targeted effort to give people tomorrow’s skills rather than yesterday’s.
A significant focus of the 2009-10 budget that will continue in 2010-11 is a large infrastructure spend. We are spending more than ever before and therefore it is critical that the investment is well targeted to provide benefits for many years to come and is designed to last. Clever infrastructure spending not only creates jobs now; if done well it can also deliver the city we will need in the future and drive change that will provide a lasting and sustainable return once government spending has finished. The welcome investment in the public transport system is a good example of this.
If we look at reporting and accountability, one of the Greens’ key priorities for the Seventh Assembly has been to reform and improve reporting and accountability mechanisms. The parliamentary agreement requires higher standards of accountability, transparency and responsibility in the conduct of all public business. There are still a number of measures in the parliamentary agreement that need to be adopted.
Triple-bottom-line accounting is one of those items. TBL means examining the economic, social and environmental impacts together. We know that the Chief Minister’s Department is undertaking a pilot TBL accounting project, but we need to see this implemented across all government agencies and incorporated in the budget as soon as possible. We need a better framework for government decision making. The Greens would like to see budgeting with a longer term view for the returns on investments and with better analysis of impacts before spending decisions are made.
It is important that triple-bottom-line accounting for each ACT government portfolio includes a detailed set of indicators which reflect the targets of key government strategy documents. The budget papers should contain measurements of progress towards these targets. Reporting against strategic and accountability indicators must be meaningful and measurable.
There seems to be a general lack of carry-through of key indicators from primary government plans into the budgeting and annual reports processes. Achieving these key indicators from already established government plans should be the spending priority. For example, where is the part of the budget that shows us how much funding has been put towards weathering the change, or the Canberra plan or its subsidiary plans?
This information is also not presented in the annual reports, which means that the government expends a lot of resources in developing these many government plans, but the one time each year when strategic decisions on expenditure are made, they do not seem to be made with these strategies and plans in mind. If they are, it is not clear
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