Page 1448 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 4 May 2016
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makes sure that Treasury, which often ends up being the final arbiter on these things, is not politicised.
The reason I table this bill today is to confirm that we do not want to go back to the bad old days. There are some very good examples where there are differences in costings. Indeed, at the last election, whether it was the delivery of green bin services or school class sizes, for example, there was some argy-bargy, and this will always be the case. But if we can have an individual whose job, guaranteed by the independence of the position, is to make sure that all policies are costed, and costed in the same way, we can then actually have a much more productive discussion on the validity and the utility of the policy rather than one side’s assertion that the other side has got the numbers wrong.
We will all have to add up the numbers in the end and make the case for what it is we want to do but this, I think, is the next step in the process. We have had these conflicts in the past. To address that we passed the Election Commitments Costing Act 2012. I am not sure we all agree it was perfect but it was a good step forward. I think it certainly helped and it took a lot of that angst away. But there is still a reliance on Treasury.
Treasury does a set of standard costings for standard functions. Treasury still gets to receive the policy. Treasury then still has to make the decision. Let’s face it; at the end of the day the Treasury works for the government, whoever that might be. So the next step to make sure that this independence is still right is to go for an even better and more independent model.
What this bill would do is give access to a fully independent policy costing unit separate from the Treasury directorate. That independent body would be called the parliamentary budget officer. The bill to establish the parliamentary budget officer ensures that all members get support on a level playing field. The public accounts committee, for instance, would have access to those services, as would any of the committees.
This goes beyond individuals or parties. It is actually designed to be of assistance and an aid to all of us in whatever facet of our activities we undertake here, particularly for something like the estimates committee. I think that last year the estimates committee spent something like $30,000 on getting assistance, on getting the analysis to undertake more detailed work so that the estimates committee could do its job properly. So I think that in terms of the evolution, this is certainly where we are heading. The question, I guess, for members will be: do they think this is the right time? Something exciting might happen in about 165 days from now. I think this is the perfect time to set this up and to have it ready for the upcoming election.
In terms of support functions for all members, the PBO would provide policy costings on a request by a member of the Assembly. During the pre-election period it would provide policy costings on request by an authorised member of a parliamentary party or an independent member of the Legislative Assembly. It would provide members with support on, for instance, analysing the budget papers. It would provide support to any of the committees, whether standing or select, to assist them in their functions. It
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