Page 2827 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 13 August 2013
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Treasurer
Motion of no confidence
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (10.54): Madam Speaker, I seek leave to move a motion of no confidence in the Treasurer due to his failure to disclose key elements of the ACT budget impacting on the territory’s true financial status.
Leave granted.
MR SMYTH: I move:
That this Assembly no longer has confidence in the Treasurer, Mr Andrew Barr, due to his failure to disclose key elements of the ACT Budget impacting on the Territory’s true financial status, namely:
(1) the refusal to release the Government’s 20 year modelling of the impact on residential and commercial general rates in support of its tax reforms;
(2) the failure to present an amended appropriation bill and relevant documents detailing the effect of the ICRC determination on the ACTEW water dividend and balance sheet in time for the Territory’s appropriation debates;
(3) the Government’s inability or reluctance to demonstrate the financial impact of its light rail project on Canberra households; and
(4) the expectation that this Assembly vote on the 2013-2014 Budget without knowing the true impact of the Government’s reforms and initiatives on the Budget.
I move the motion of no confidence today because of the sheer negligence where the minister is asking us to vote on the 2013-14 budget without knowing the true impact of the government’s reforms and initiatives on the budget. In doing so, the minister may be asking all members in this place to breach the territory’s Financial Management Act.
Section 11(6)(f) of the territory’s Financial Management Act states, under the principles of responsible fiscal management, that the budget papers must give “full, accurate and timely disclosure of financial information about the activities of the government and its agencies”. We know that we do not have a full disclosure of the financial information. We certainly do not have accurate disclosure of the financial information, and we do not have timely disclosure of financial information about the activities of the government and its agencies. It would, therefore, be negligent for this debate to occur.
The act makes it quite clear what the minister must do. Indeed, the act says in section 11(5) what must happen if you want to depart from the principles of responsible financial management. It says:
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