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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 7 Hansard (20 June) . . Page.. 1972 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

I think, Mr Speaker, that the effort put in by the committee to meet tight timeframes on this work was worth while. That was done in order to meet the timeframes for a mid-year budget. I still believe that we could well have had a mid-year budget in the same way that New South Wales did. It may have required some modification following the Premiers meeting, but the indications to me are that the outcomes of the Premiers Conference were able to be predicted at a reasonable enough level to still put the budget together in the middle of the year, as happened in New South Wales with a much more complicated set of accounts. Mr Speaker, I wondered whether it really was an excuse to take the pressure off getting the budget in on time in the way Ms Follett had been able to do and to let that standard go. I look forward to next year when the budget is on time, and I hope that we can go through the process of the capital works investigation in the same thorough way.

I hope that we will wind up with fewer recommendations. I suppose that in these committees that effectively do repeat work, such as the Estimates Committee and the capital works committee, we always hope, although we realise that it is idealistic, that we will get to the stage where we will not have to make any recommendations because everything will be the way it ought to be. Of course, that is somewhat idealistic, but we would expect to see improvements coming on year after year. Probably the best judgment of how well governments and the bureaucracy are responding to these issues is how substantive are the recommendations of the committee reports as we go on.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Debate resumed from 7 December 1995, on motion by Ms Follett:

That the report be noted.

MR WOOD (11.35): Mr Speaker, I notice that time is short. I do not think I will go beyond the allotted time. The committee was concerned about the speed of change and to ensure that government vehicles were used much more efficiently. We are still anxious for the Government to monitor the speed of change. As chair of the committee, I certainly am anxious for the Government to keep a close watch and ensure that change occurs. I do not think the number of vehicles in the fleet is going to be reduced without considerable pressure. There is a great deal of inertia to be overcome in securing this change. There will necessarily be a greater Government focus on the SES component of the vehicle fleet as a result of the Premiers Conference last week. The Government is going to have to continue that focus.

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