Page 1151 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 2 April 2019

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that Canberra will need in the coming decade. For these reasons, and in spite of the conspiracy theories of the opposition leader, I commend the bill to the Assembly.

Question put:

That this bill be agreed to in principle.

The Assembly voted—

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Detail stage

Clause 1 agreed to.

Clause 2.

MR COE (Yerrabi—Leader of the Opposition) (11.48): Pursuant to standing order 182A(a) and (b), I seek leave to move amendments to this bill that are urgent and minor and technical in nature.

Leave granted.

MR COE: I move amendment No 1 circulated in my name [see schedule 1 at page 1218]. This amendment changes the commencement date to 1 July, the start of the new financial year. The government introduced this legislation two weeks ago, which, as I have already said, made it very difficult to bring forward amendments to comply with the standing orders, so I am grateful that leave was granted. However, it is still not best practice to have such a short amount of time for the Financial Management Act to be amended.

If the new reserve is to be established, it is prudent that it start on 1 July, the date of the new financial year. Otherwise the government is potentially able to use it this financial year, which I do not think is appropriate. Ms Le Couteur said she could not support 1 July because it needs to be in the budget. Well, the budget starts on 1 July and we can pass this legislation today with a commencement date of 1 July. Her argument that this needs to be in place right away is wrong. We can put this in place for 1 July, and therefore it is not retrospective to take into account the appropriation made last year.

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