Page 2729 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 23 June 2009
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As the Legislative Assembly has not passed the 2009-10 Budget, departmental budget allocations have not been finalised …
It goes on: in relation to web design and web hosting, again they will not give us the answer. This goes to the heart of what we are being asked to do here, Madam Deputy Speaker. We are being asked to support a budget. It is legitimate that in scrutinising that budget we ask a lot of questions because we do not get the breakdown in the budget papers. The budget papers do not give us a breakdown of where this money is going to be spent.
Mr Smyth: 530 questions.
MR SESELJA: Indeed; we did ask a lot of questions and it is legitimate that we do. I was thinking, “Well, what is it? Is it actually that he does not want to answer or that he cannot answer?” I thought, “If he cannot answer, that means the budget process is totalling flawed, that they are not actually working out what they need, and then asking for money, putting in bogus submissions.”
Mr Smyth: It is just a guess.
MR SESELJA: Apparently, it is just a guess. But then I see a question for the Attorney-General in relation to the Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission:
How much will the Commission spend on travel including domestic and international travel?
The response states:
Estimated Commission domestic travel expenditure for 2009-10 is $6,000 to $7,000.
Mr Smyth: Hang on!
MR SESELJA: So hang on; why can the Attorney-General answer this question? Why is it a reasonable question for the Attorney-General to answer? Indeed, the LDA have actually answered similar questions, to their credit. We will go into the detail of some of those. Why is it unreasonable?
We have a Chief Minister who is actually asking us to pass a budget but he is refusing to tell us what he is going to spend the money on. This goes to the heart of the budget process. This goes to the heart of the estimates process. No wonder he did not want us to ask questions. It is because he is not prepared to give reasonable answers to reasonable questions.
At some stage no doubt the Chief Minister will engage in this budget debate. He has been clearly so sidelined internally that he does not bother to come to some of these debates anymore. But I put this to all members: is it reasonable that government departments and ministers say to the Assembly, “Pass our budget and we will tell you later on how we are going to spend that money”? That is unacceptable.
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