Page 2446 - Week 06 - Thursday, 24 June 2010
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I note that TAMS has received two payments: the first for $3.7 million has things in it like $150,000 for the library service, $510,000 for payments associated with the management of Tuggeranong Lakeside Leisure Centre and $150,000 for the performance fees agreement with the AFL. Curiously, there is a very large sum of $2.924 million for the management of parks, conservation and land assets. I am intrigued. We would certainly give leave for the Treasurer or the minister for TAMS to tell us what that $2.9 million was and how it was unexpected. It seems to be a very large amount of money. It is a very large amount of money to come so late in the year.
Of course, the next piece of the Treasurer’s advance is again an allocation to the Department of Territory and Municipal Services. It seems to be for ACTION. It is $1 million for personal injury claims pre the ACT authority; so there would be questions about that. There is an additional $2,066,000 for general operating cost pressures. Yet again, ACTION has blown its budget.
It does bring into question the economic credentials of this government. In the last week of the financial year they manage to splurge almost another $20 million of taxpayers’ money for things that I think it is fair to say are probably not unforeseen. Without having the full detail—I will ask the Treasurer for a briefing on all of the elements here—just looking quickly through it, the Department of Land and Property Services has picked up another half a million dollars.
I am not sure why we need $322,000 for the continuation of the national building task force. I thought that was a federal initiative. There is some money for software in ACTPLA. The Department of Education and Training has received $6.925 million. Again, the notes say that this is for enrolment adjustment; but surely that has been known for some time.
I am always suspicious of payments that are made at the very last moment. We have got $1.2 million for enrolment adjustments for the 2009-10 year and $2.6 million for the higher than budgeted superannuation costs. Again, you have to question why we do not know these numbers when the financial year starts and the budget is put together. There is also $3 million for the provision of services to cater for the high number of students with disabilities and increasing student needs, which I think we all welcome. But there is a question there that $6.9 million is needed to be spent so late in the year. There is a quarter of a million dollars for the national emergency warning system, which, of course, the minister told us was operational before the season but, again, apparently not.
Then Justice has picked up another $51,000—well, $51,000 for higher than anticipated legal expenses is probably reasonable but you have to wonder why the department cannot actually absorb a $51,000 payment. It is interesting. In the Department of Disability, Housing and Community Services, perhaps the minister might like to explain why the operational cost pressures have been blown out to the cost of $1 million. But we got such unsatisfactory answers during the estimates that I am not sure the minister could explain anything.
The Chief Minister’s Department has picked up another $567,000. There is a bit of money there for the World Cup, which I am sure some of us will be pleased with,
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