Page 2846 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 22 November 1989
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that committee. The Government also moved that the Appropriation Bill be referred to the Estimates Committee, and that committee has come back with a comprehensive report and considerable comment on the budget. How do we know the extent to which the Government intends to incorporate all or any of those comments in this budget if we proceed on a program by program debate in accordance with the schedule?
I am not quite clear on how we know what the Government's budget is now, since it has had two lots of recommendations, and we do not know the extent to which those recommendations have been adopted by the Government or the extent to which it has changed its Appropriation Bill as presented at this stage.
MS FOLLETT (Treasurer): Mr Speaker, I reported yesterday on the Government's response to the Estimates Committee report, and in that response I indicated that there were, in fact, three recommendations of the Estimates Committee that had a bearing on the Appropriation Bill. I responded on those three matters and tabled a much more lengthy report. Mr Kaine has also raised the matter of the review of the capital works program by the Assembly's Standing Committee on Planning, Development and Infrastructure. Again, I have responded on that and I think it has been debated in the Assembly. The Assembly's planning committee response does not, in fact, change the Appropriation Bill.
MR KAINE: That still does not clarify the issue, Mr Speaker. The Government has said that it intends to do certain things. We still have an Appropriation Bill before the Assembly. Presumably the Government is not going to propose any amendments to it. If it is, it has not yet put any amendments before us to indicate how it intends now to change the Bill. I am still unclear as to just what the Appropriation Bill consists of at this moment, given the debate, the consultative process, if you like, that has taken place. How does all of that affect the Appropriation Bill that we are now being asked to debate?
I am unclear about it and, if I am unclear, I am quite sure that everybody else sitting around this Assembly is as well. Perhaps the Government could clarify the position as we move along on an item by item basis. The Government should explain to us how the precise effects of everything that has happened over the last four or five months is now reflected in this document. I would certainly appreciate some clarification and advice as we move through the Bill.
MS FOLLETT: None of the comments that have been made in the debate in the Assembly in effect changes the Appropriation Bill, so I see no reason to make any changes to it. There were three matters in the Estimates Committee's report which had a bearing. The first was the proposal to fence around Stage 88. The Government agreed with the Estimates Committee's findings on that matter.
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