Page 1558 - Week 05 - Thursday, 15 May 2014
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Detail stage
Bill, by leave, taken as a whole.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (11.07): by leave: I move amendments Nos 1 to 3 circulated in my name together [see schedule 1 at page 1625].
I will speak briefly to the three amendments. There are two changes proposed in the amendments. Firstly, I refer to the process for providing additional funds for the officers of the Assembly where the Appropriation Act does not adequately provide for an officer and a Treasurer’s advance is required. A process for this circumstance is currently set out in the Auditor-General Act but it was not included in the officer of the Assembly act that we passed last year. The bill proposes to include a similar process that applies to each of the officers in the Financial Management Act. This very minor amendment to what is proposed in the bill simply moves this new process from its own separate section in the FMA to within the current section 18 so that all the provisions associated with the Treasurer’s advance are included in the one section of the act.
Similar to what is proposed in the bill currently, the amendment sets out a process for consultation between the Speaker and the relevant committee chair, after which the Speaker may transmit notice of the additional need for funding to the Treasurer to be determined under the existing criteria for a Treasurer’s advance.
In moving the process into section 18, the initial step, for the officer of the Assembly to notify the Speaker and the committee chair when they believe they do not have sufficient funds, is no longer explicitly set out. This does not change the obvious reality that it may well be the initiative of the officer themselves that dictates when the process starts. However, the amendment also recognises that there may be circumstances where the committee itself or another member of the Assembly wish to raise the issue and have the need for an additional expenditure considered by the Treasurer, and limiting the catalyst for consideration of the additional appropriation to the officers themselves was too narrow.
The second amendment is a very minor amendment to clarify the scope of the Appropriation Act that is referred to and clarify that even though the appropriation for the officer of the Assembly must be within the appropriation for the Office of the Legislative Assembly, the definition does include the appropriation to the officers.
These are minor and subtle amendments that, consistent with the intention of the bill, simply make some administrative tidy-ups to ensure the effective operation of the new officers of the Assembly scheme. Making these minor changes will further add to the accountability and governance benefits that we can expect to see as a result of making the Auditor-General, the Electoral Commission and the Ombudsman officers of the Assembly.
Amendments agreed to.
Bill, as a whole, as amended, agreed to.
Bill, as amended, agreed to.
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