Page 4147 - Week 09 - Thursday, 26 August 2010

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Answers to questions

Building the education revolution—economic impact
(Question No 889)

Ms Le Couteur asked the Treasurer, upon notice, on 25 March 2010:

Given that the Minister for Education and Training stated that he expected that the Building the Education Revolution program would be finished by the end of this year, what will the impact be on employment and the economy in the ACT more generally.

Ms Gallagher: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:

The Building the Education Revolution program, apart from investing in education, is part of the Federal Government’s set of fiscal stimulus measures to safeguard the national economy from a potential recession from the effects of the global financial crisis.

The completion of the program was planned in accordance with the withdrawal of the fiscal stimulus from the economy. As such, the economic forecasts by the Commonwealth at the national level, and for the Territory’s economy in the ACT Budget take account of the completion of the program.

As noted by the various commentators and highlighted in the national accounts updates, both the national as well as the Territory’s economies have performed better than what was envisaged at the time of the introduction of the fiscal stimulus measures. This should ameliorate any concerns regarding the planned completion of the program and the consequent “withdrawal” of the expenditure from the economy.

The Member should also note the estimates of Government expenditure on capital works include expenditure on the Building the Education Revolution program. As published in the 2010 11 Budget (Budget Paper No. 3, Page 125) the capital works expenditure is budgeted to increase from an estimated $624 million in 2009 10 to around $756 million in 2010 11.

Public service—staff
(Question No 978)

Mrs Dunne asked the Treasurer, upon notice, on 22 June 2010:

(1) Can the Treasurer confirm the answers to supplementary questions on notice Nos 40 and 41 given during hearings of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts into annual and financial reports 2008-09; if not, (a) why not and (b) what clarification of those answers can the Treasurer provide.

(2) If the Treasurer can confirm the answer to question No 40, (a) what is the nature of the work being done by those staff and (b) how many of those staff are (i) casual, (ii) permanent part-time, (iii) permanent full-time, (iv) fixed-term part-time, (v) fixed-term full-time, (vi) contract and (vii) other.