Page 848 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 20 March 2012
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That did not happen. I repeat: Ms Gallagher asked the Treasury to complete the review in November 2011. So what happened after March 2011? Well, two things: PAC has proceeded with its inquiry into the government’s further proposed amendments to the third-party regime and the government has failed to comply with the requirements to complete a review of the ACT’s third-party regime and present that review to the Assembly by 31 December 2011. In doing so, the government has broken the law.
We need to emphasise that the government is certainly not able to plead that it did not know about the parameters of this review. Not only are they well documented and acknowledged in March 2011 but they were raised in hearings of PAC in October 2011 as part of the inquiry into the government’s third-party proposal. The chair of that committee said:
THE CHAIR: Thank you. The act provided that a review commence on 30 September this year. Has that review commenced?
Mr Barr: Yes.
THE CHAIR: And when will it be finished and expected to report?
Mr Barr: I will take some further advice on a report date but it is certainly underway.
We then have a further quote from 16 December, when I raised the review during PAC’s hearings into annual reports:
THE CHAIR: Mr Smyth.
MR SMYTH: Just on that, have we received the government’s report yet on CTP …
Ms Smithies: No, you have not. It is not finalised yet, though.
MR SMYTH: When are we likely to receive it?
Ms Smithies: It is still within the time frame. It will be finished early January for the government. And it is due to be with the Assembly in the first sitting of the Assembly.
On 3 January 2012 the Treasurer, Mr Barr, provided an answer to a question from PAC by providing more detail about this review. The question was where was the review and when would we get it, and the answer was that the three-year legislative review commenced on 6 October 2011, and the act stipulates that within three months of the review—so the minister is well and truly aware of the requirements of the law—having commenced the report is to be presented to the Assembly. The Treasurer said that as the three-month period ends on 6 January 2011—he actually got it wrong and was out by a year—the report is expected to be presented to the Assembly in the first sitting week for 2012. He said the government will consider the review before deciding on future actions regarding the ACT’s CTP scheme.
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