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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 3 Hansard (8 April) . . Page.. 718 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

would have total knowledge of what the Government's budget was going to be like from the beginning of the financial year. That means that we have to have it passed by the end of this financial year to achieve the very things that Ms Follett has very appropriately argued for right here.

Mr Speaker, by bringing it down in May, we will be one of the first States or Territories to bring down its budget, although virtually everybody will be bringing them down in that period from the last week of April to the first two or three weeks of May. That is when literally all States and Territories, to my knowledge - there might be one or two that do not - are going to bring down their budgets. Why? Just read Ms Follett's statements to find out why.

Ms McRae: Is anyone doing it before the Federal budget? No.

MRS CARNELL: Yes, they are. In fact, almost everyone is going before the Federal budget. Certainly, Victoria is. I think most people are going before the Federal budget. As Ms Follett said here, she believed that there was no reason to wait for the Federal budget; that SPPs were more or less the same every year. This is not quoting me, Mr Speaker; it is quoting the previous Chief Minister and Treasurer on her feelings about why there were many good reasons, to quote her, for bringing down an early budget. Most importantly, it is not just bringing down an early budget; it is passing an early budget. You have to actually have a budget through and in place at the beginning of the financial year. That ensures that members of the Public Service and all our departments cannot ever say, as an excuse, "Oh, well, we did not really have a final budget for the first quarter".

What will happen, Mr Speaker, hopefully, is that this Assembly will support a situation where the budget is in place from the beginning of the financial year and where we do have two approaches to asking the Government questions. I understand from the numbers that it will probably be the Estimates Committee on two occasions. The approach from this side has been that the Public Accounts Committee could probably handle the second set of hearings. I think the Assembly will choose the other way. That means that we will have three weeks now for the budget and potentially three or four weeks - maybe even longer - later to look at end of financial year and annual reports, which means, of course, that in total there will be more than the six weeks that the Estimates Committee thought was appropriate. It is just a fact, Mr Speaker.

Mr Speaker, what those opposite cannot do is hold a consistent line. They have always argued for early budgets, as Ms Follett has appropriately put here. They have always argued for a situation where the budget can be in place by the beginning of the financial year, as Ms Follett has very eloquently said in this place before. What they are trying to do here is play politics with the timeframe of the budget. That is the bottom line and the only reason for this. But I must admit, Mr Speaker, that I would have thought that everybody in this place had some interest in keeping at least a basic consistent line on this.

Ms McRae: Put up a decent argument; come on!

MRS CARNELL: I do not have to. Ms Follett did it for me.

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