Page 3171 - Week 07 - Thursday, 30 June 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (2.25 am): The Treasurer’s advance is a hidden component of the annual budget, but a very significant part, because it has enabled additional spending of tens of billions of dollars. Typically under this Labor government, there has been an end of financial year spending binge to utilise the Treasurer’s advance, and surprise, surprise, it happened again this year.
In 2011, nearly $21 million was committed on 23 June to a range of projects—a very special day, obviously—indeed, besting the personal best of the Treasurer with last year’s effort, which of course was only $19 million. In June 2010, of course, the Treasurer made the extraordinary statement when tabling the document showing the government’s spending binge of the $19 million from the Treasurer’s advance that it actually represented a saving. It was a saving because the government had not spent all of the $37 million available. “I had some money but I did not spend it all; therefore I have made a saving.” She said—and it is a lovely quote:
This demonstrates the government’s ability to control costs and our strong track record on financial management.
“Yes, we blew an extra $20 million. We blew it. We are an extra $20 million down.” It is a demonstrable load of nonsense. Agencies access the Treasurer’s advance in the main because their costs have blown out for some reason or other, not because they have been able to control their costs. If they could control their costs, they would not need the Treasurer’s advance.
What happened on 23 June 2011? Today, we learned that the Treasurer has failed again. She cannot control costs across the ACT government. She has failed to exert leadership. And we discovered today that the spend from the Treasurer’s advance increased from $370,000, which until 23 June was a pretty good effort, to $21.987 million, all in a single day. So 23 June 2010 has been a good day for a range of poor managers across ACT government agencies.
I could read the list, but it was tabled this afternoon. It is very interesting reading, members. However, it is interesting that the Treasurer in estimates was asked a question on notice about the position as at 9 June 2011. In response to the question that I had asked, the Treasurer told me that potential additional spending from the Treasurer’s advance would be in the order of $5 million. That was question on notice No 2. So this was in addition to the spending to date of then $370,000 out of the total fund of $29 million. So the question has to be asked: what happened between 9 June and 23 June? And how did potential spending of $4.874 million become $21 million?
The Assembly has been told that a range of ACT agencies have failed to control their costs, leading to a further $21 million being approved from the Treasurer’s advance fund. Some of these approvals certainly appear okay, including spending on disability and special needs, education, spending on increased mowing, spending on longstanding insurance claims and total spending of about $7.5 million. But there are some that are not. Cost pressures in Health, CIT and JACS have totalled more than $14 million.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video