Page 2333 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 29 August 2007
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Mr Mulcahy: Point of order. The question related to the impact of the additional revenues and asked when the Chief Minister would provide the people of Canberra with an accurate picture of the budget position. I do not think that a trip down memory lane is really what was contained in the question.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Come to the subject matter of the question, Chief Minister.
MR STANHOPE: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. The government has provided and continues to provide updated information for the Assembly and indeed for the community in relation to the budget position for the territory. The most recent of those was last week when I tabled the essential final position for the last financial year. The document or the documentation that was the source for the question that was just asked actually reflects the up-to-date position of the ACT budget. That is precisely what it was.
But for the tabling of that document or documentation, required pursuant to the Financial Management Act, we would not have had an up-to-date exact act with the precise position of the ACT budget. I think I tabled last Tuesday the 2007 June quarter consolidated financial report, which provides a precise statement and account of the current budget position for the territory. It was as a consequence of the preparation and tabling of that report that the member was able to ask his question.
When are we going to do it? I tabled the June quarter consolidated financial report last Tuesday and that is the most up-to-date state—admittedly it is now two weeks old—of the ACT budget position. Of course, we will update it again with the tabling of the next quarterly report and we will update it again after that, three months later, with a very precise position of the budget at the end of the year. Then we will provide a mid-year review on how the budget is travelling and we will follow that with a further quarterly financial statement and a budget.
So every quarter up-to-date fine details of the budget position are provided. One was provided just 10 or 12 days ago, which the member is now relying on for the purpose of asking his question, exhibiting quite obviously that he did not understand the document or the documentation and what it was that it was revealing. In the context of the budget position there will be an update to that through the mid-year review.
In that review we will take into account changes and those risks that emerge, decisions that may or may not be taken, issues around expectations at the time in relation to the performance of the budget, and the predictions that are incorporated within the budget and underpin the assumptions that have led to the budget estimates. That is the process and it surprises me somewhat that the member was not aware of that.
MR SMYTH: I ask a supplementary question. Treasurer, having definitively ruled out tax relief or meaningful projects for the people of Canberra what are your plans for this windfall?
MR STANHOPE: I answered a question last week, I think from the shadow treasurer, who actually pays some attention to these matters and who at least has some
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