Page 1950 - Week 05 - Thursday, 6 May 2010

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functions previously undertaken by CMD to be undertaken by LAPS. Also, consistent with the administrative arrangements effective from 10 November 2009, $9.959 million in appropriation associated with Australian Capital Tourism has been transferred from the Department of Territory and Municipal Services to CMD.

An amount of $715,000 has also been transferred from the Department of Justice and Community Safety to Housing ACT for the managed accommodation program for people exiting the Alexander Maconochie Centre. The program is complementary to the men’s accommodation support service and the outreach support service currently administered by Housing ACT.

In addition, the ACT Government and Assembly Library appropriation has been transferred from the territorial accounts of the Legislative Assembly Secretariat to its departmental accounts. The operating budget for the library was originally transferred to the Legislative Assembly Secretariat’s territorial accounts. However, after a review of this arrangement, it is now considered more appropriate that the library, including its staff and the library collection, be recognised in the Legislative Assembly Secretariat’s departmental accounts.

Section 17 of the act enables appropriations to be varied for any increase in existing commonwealth payments by direction of the Treasurer. This package includes three instruments authorised under section 17 of the act. An additional $700,000 has been received from the commonwealth for the digital education revolution program and the Department of Education and Training’s appropriation has been increased to deliver this program. An amount of $360,000 in additional funding has been received from the commonwealth for the provision of legal assistance services under the legal aid national partnership. Accordingly, the Legal Aid Commission’s appropriation has been increased. An amount of $1.526 million of additional funding has also been received from the commonwealth for the first homeowners boost.

This increase in funding is due to the extension of the scheme by the commonwealth to 31 December 2009. This extension was announced after the release of the ACT budget. The increase in appropriation is required to fund the additional first home owners boost payments being made by the Department of Treasury.

Section 18 of the act allows the Treasurer to authorise expenditure from the Treasurer’s advance. The amount of $2.5 million has been provided to Treasury to make first-home owner grant payments and to facilitate the payment of the first home owner boost, as Treasury receives this funding from the commonwealth in arrears. Additional detail regarding all instruments is provided in the statement of reasons accompanying each instrument. I commend these instruments to the Assembly.

Paper

Ms Gallagher presented the following paper:

Gene Technology Act, pursuant to subsection 136A(3)—Operations of the Gene Technology Regulator—Quarterly report—1 October to 31 December 2009, dated 16 February 2010.


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