Page 2253 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 5 June 2013
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Nonetheless, I have circulated amendments. My amendments seek to tidy up a few things in the motion from a grammatical point of view and then acknowledge that we are about to go into a significant process. I seek leave to move my amendments together.
Leave granted.
MR RATTENBURY: Thank you, members. I move:
(1) In paragraph (1)(a)(iii), omit “with”.
(2) In paragraph (1)(a)(iv), omit all words after “structural reforms”, substitute “to make the Territory Budget and operation of government more efficient”.
(3) In paragraph (1)(a)(v), omit all words after “measured way”.
(4) Insert new paragraph (1)(a)(vii):
“(vii) will be now subject to extensive consideration by the Select Committee on Estimates, followed by debate on the detail of each proposed expenditure during the August sittings of the Assembly;”.
(5) Omit paragraph (2), substitute:
“(2) calls on all Members of the Assembly to thoroughly consider each expenditure outlined in the Budget papers and support measures that will make Canberra a more amenable, sustainable and enjoyable place to live.”.
As I was saying, one part of the amendments is just to make a few tidy-ups on the text of the motion. The other is essentially—rather than forming a defined view on the budget, and I will speak to my views on it in a moment—to acknowledge the fact that we are now about to go into a lengthy process of consideration of the budget. We are going to have the in-principle debate tomorrow; I expect members will put their views again then—possibly the same views as we have heard today. We then go into the estimates process, in which we go through a lot of detail. Certainly from my point of view, with the portfolios that I am responsible for, I look forward to that process. I imagine there will be some robust debate about some of the initiatives in the budget and some of the areas where changes have been made; I think there will be a fair bit of information that will come out through that process as well. So my amendment simply acknowledges that that process is about to take place, and I trust that all members will actively participate in the detailed discussion of the budget.
In terms of the actual content of the budget, overall the budget has delivered a couple of key outcomes. The first is to deliver a pathway of fiscal responsibility. I said yesterday in some public comments that from the Greens’ point of view, we are a party that has a strong view about the need for sustainability, and when it comes to sustainability that includes economic sustainability. I do not believe that we can live on the credit card forever, and that is a party view; we must have budgets that are
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