Page 2431 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 9 August 2016
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Madam Speaker, on behalf of the Under Treasurer, I am presenting the Guidelines for costing election commitments and the amendments to the election commitments costing bill for the Assembly’s consideration.
The guidelines are issued by the Under Treasurer pursuant to section 7 of the Election Commitments Costing Act 2012. I note that the guidelines are dependent on the outcomes of the amendments being introduced today, and may require further revisions pending those outcomes.
This bill has been prepared in response to feedback I have received following consultation with other parties in this place on the draft guidelines. The consultative process was undertaken in recognition of a suggestion made by the Australia and New Zealand School of Government institute for governance into the operation of the act following the 2012 Assembly election. The review was commissioned in accordance with section 14 of the act. Section 14 has since been removed in accordance with its expiry on 31 October 2014.
The government, in its response to the review, agreed to suggestion 5, albeit with a modified process. Broadly, the government agreed to engage with the other parties regarding the content of the guidelines, with a view to incorporating any amendments prior to their tabling in this the final sitting period.
The bill that I present today proposes an amendment to the act following consultation with other parties. Primarily, it amends the act to make the issuance of written guidelines a requirement of the director-general and to allow each party to withdraw up to six individual policy costing requests after the costings have been completed and returned to the respective party.
The guidelines I present today for the Assembly’s information have been amended by the Under Treasurer to reflect this change, in addition to other alterations to procedural arrangements. I note that the guidelines have been amended such that receipt of a costing request will only trigger the public release of the name of the requester, details of the date the request was received, and the name of the policy proposal, but not the request itself. This approach does not require an amendment to the act, as subsection 5(4) specifies that only “the election commitment to which the request relates” must be made publicly available. In terms of practicalities, this will mean that, should a costing not be withdrawn, both the costing request and the costing itself will be made publicly available once the costing has been finalised and after the applicable review period. I further understand the guidelines have been amended to allow requesters 48 hours rather than 24 hours to review Treasury costings. This approach will apply for the entire costing period apart from the final week, the week prior to election day, when the review period would reduce to 24 hours.
I thank Mr Coe and Mr Rattenbury for their feedback on the guidelines on behalf of their respective parties. I commend the Election Commitments Costing Amendment Bill to the Assembly and have tabled the Guidelines for costing election commitments 2016 on behalf of the Under Treasurer.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video