Page 2754 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 29 June 2010
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factors that the government is asserting it considers or to weigh them up in our own minds. I would be very pleased if the Chief Minister could confirm that, both for the purposes of reporting and for analysis, a comprehensive tool will be used across government in time for this year’s annual reports and next year’s budget and the nature and scope of those tools.
With regard to the provision of information on the government’s decisions on resource allocation, it is still not clear how spending is prioritised, nor where this information is to be reported. There is still little apparent link between the numerous government plans and strategies and the expenditure items. Again, the estimates committee has made a recommendation relating to this.
The adequate implementation of both short and long-term strategies and plans that have been publicly adopted by the government, which have been subject to public consultations and have had significant public money and executive time devoted to their development, remains a significant issue. Indicators from these strategies and plans should be included in the budget. I think it would be appropriate for CMD to develop a whole-of-government approach to ensure that the public can identify where and why priority is allocated to various initiatives over others. I note that ACTPLA does this, but I have not seen any of the other government departments do it, unfortunately, including the government policy and strategy part of CMD.
One other point that should be raised, as it is a whole-of-government issue, is the reporting of gender disaggregated data. I note that a trial is underway in ACT Health and that the Minister for Women is pursuing the issue of pay equity in the ACT public service. In addition to these initiatives, there needs to be a whole-of-government approach so that we can develop robust analysis tools as part of triple-bottom-line reporting and have a comprehensive understanding of the particular gender impacts of any initiatives we agree to.
On the issue of the infrastructure, again we have an exceptionally large infrastructure spend and it is important that we consider how that spend is evaluated. As I said during the in-principle debate, it is essential that we properly evaluate the expenditure measures to ensure the long-term benefits for the community and both environmentally and socially sustainable outcomes.
CMD plays an important role not only in delivering the infrastructure plan but also in developing a robust means of assessing expenditure proposals. Whilst discussing infrastructure, again it is disappointing that the government has failed to agree to committee recommendation 5 that implementation plans for major infrastructure projects be provided with budget papers. The reason given is that this would not be practical or cost-effective. I hope that, in spite of this, the government can see that it is reasonable for members to request this type of information and that it should be provided to inform our decision making on the approval of projects.
I would like to briefly raise the issue of the ACT Demographer, their role and the use we make of the information provided. There has been significant interest in the population debate recently. I do not wish to engage in that other than to say that I look forward to the inquiry into the ecological carrying capacity that will be undertaken as provided for by the Labor-Greens parliamentary agreement.
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