Page 600 - Week 02 - Thursday, 14 February 2013
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Leave granted to dispense with the detail stage.
Bill agreed to.
Financial Management Amendment Bill 2012 (No 2)
Debate resumed from 29 November 2012, on motion by Mr Barr:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (12.16): This bill could simply be described as a machinery of government bill. The government made some changes to the admin arrangements in May last year and now requires all of the agencies to look at their performance criteria and, if necessary, make amendments under section 19D. What the government intends with this bill is that those changes will be done in consultation with Treasury and that new criteria will not be promulgated unless signed by both the minister responsible and the Treasurer. It seems a reasonable approach. I do find it quite quirky, though, in that ministers will be asked to talk to Treasury. I assume the minister will talk to the Treasurer and I suppose the minister for tourism will have a very interesting conversation with himself.
Mr Barr: The joys of a small parliament.
MR SMYTH: Well, it is interesting. The reason we have two signatures on these things is to make sure it is not ministers haring off on their own. I refer the minister to his own clause 4 and to the explanatory memorandum, which says:
Including the Treasurer in subsection (2) means the notifiable instrument under section 19D (5) is only made if signed by both the responsible Minister and the Treasurer.
So I look forward to notifiable instruments signed by the Treasurer and by the Treasurer. I raised the question in the briefing—and I thank the minister for the briefing that the staff gave—that there is an anomaly that perhaps needs some clarification. We may in time need legislation to the effect that if the Treasurer and the minister are the same person another minister must also sign. I am sure his staff raised this with him. I am sure the Treasurer, when he finishes, will leap to his feet and tell us how he is going to overcome the problem of him checking himself. That said, it seems reasonable. We will monitor the performance of the amendments and, if necessary, come back to the Assembly.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Sport and Recreation, Minister for Tourism and Events and Minister for Community Services) (12.18), in reply: I thank the opposition for their support of the bill. Just in summary, the bill does improve the processes by which agencies amend their performance criteria. The performance management framework the territory adopts requires agencies to set performance criteria against
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