Page 2840 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 13 August 2013
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and debate the budget. We have had hundreds of questions on notice. We have had all the ministers appear.
Mr Smyth: This is appropriate.
MS GALLAGHER: I agree that it is all appropriate, but to then come in here and hysterically claim that the budget is going to be rammed through and that it is some great slight on an openness and transparency agenda is simply not true.
Mr Smyth made the claim a number of times that we are going to seek to ram this bill through. After the six weeks that have elapsed since the budget was tabled, we now have the dedication of this entire sitting week to present debates for and against the budget.
The process for the budget is the same as it has always been. There is a very comprehensive set of papers that accompany the bill, including very detailed descriptions of the financial position of the territory and all of its directorates, of the appropriations made to date, of the appropriation for this year and some estimates going into the outyear. These will be updated in the budget update to be presented in accordance with the Financial Management Act, just as it has been done every single year. Changes reflected from the moment in time when the budget was tabled to the moment in time when the budget update is released will be clearly outlined in that document. That is no different from the case in every other budget year.
They make great claims around capital metro. The capital metro appropriation is dealt with in full for the appropriations sought by this Assembly. There will be further appropriations sought for capital metro as those costs are agreed to and more detail can be provided in further appropriations, as is the case for many of the large projects. For example, the Health infrastructure works are appropriated each year as the projects reach the point where funding can be allocated. So with respect to the claim that there is a lack of detail about the costs of capital metro, the costs of capital metro, to the point that those costs have been agreed, are detailed in the budget papers and any further appropriation that is sought by this place will be dealt with in exactly the same way as the appropriation for that project is being sought, through the appropriation bill that is before the Assembly today.
What the Liberals are trying to say is that they want more time. I do not know why they want more time. Maybe we can debate it in September. Maybe Mr Smyth will be ready then; who knows? But there is no logical argument to not debate the budget today, other than that the opposition, for some reason or another, during the winter recess have not had the time to get ready to debate the budget and now they are trying to make it the Assembly’s problem.
The Assembly is ready to debate the budget. We stand here ready. Yes, on the other side of the chamber stands a tired and directionless opposition with no ideas other than to spoil, distract and delay. We will see another three years of it, and we are ready for it, but in the meantime, whilst that is the approach you take, we are ready. We stand here with all the debates ready to go, to deliver on the commitments we
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