Page 3197 - Week 10 - Thursday, 15 August 2013
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The Assembly voted—
|
Ayes 9 |
Noes 8 | ||
|
Mr Barr |
Ms Gallagher |
Mr Coe |
Ms Lawder |
|
Ms Berry |
Mr Gentleman |
Mr Doszpot |
Mr Smyth |
|
Dr Bourke |
Ms Porter |
Mrs Dunne |
Mr Wall |
|
Ms Burch |
Mr Rattenbury |
Mr Hanson | |
|
Mr Corbell |
Mrs Jones | ||
Question so resolved in the affirmative.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Proposed expenditure—Part 1.26—Treasurer’s Advance—$28,100,000.
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) (8.57): The Treasurer’s advance provision for the 2013-14 fiscal year is $28.1 million. This is slightly below last year’s provision of $31.3 million due to the government’s decision in the 2012-13 budget review to lower the Treasurer’s advance to 0.67 per cent of total appropriations, not 0.5 per cent of total appropriations.
The Treasurer’s advance provision provides the government with flexibility to meet short-term expenditure challenges during the year that are urgent, unforeseen and which inevitably arise. Providing the provisional allocation of Treasurer’s advance appropriation in the budget enables agencies to access the fund once certain criteria are met, and without the need for the reallocation of resources.
Information that I tabled in the Assembly earlier will confirm that for the 2012-13 fiscal year the Treasurer’s advance was underspent by about $10.3 million. The provision of $28.1 million in this budget and tying it to 0.67 of a per cent of total appropriations enables the government to manage those variety of urgent and unforeseen expenditures that do occur, and I think everyone acknowledges they do occur. This is a sensible level to set the Treasurer’s advance at, and I commend this appropriation to the Assembly.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (9.00): Of course the important words are “urgent and unforeseen”. It is somewhat of a tradition, particularly, as Mr Coe points out, for ACTION to have urgent and unforeseen payments made in every last week of the financial year because they so consistently blow their budgets.
For those members who were not here in 2008, this was a Liberal party initiative to save funds. The government at the time pooh-poohed it, saying, “It’s not a saving. You can’t halve the Treasurer’s advance and call it a saving. That’s just not fair. It’s not according to Hoyle. It’s not kosher.” That is why the Treasurer is reluctant to go to half of one per cent.
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