Page 2945 - Week 09 - Thursday, 13 August 2015
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proportion of the $1.2 million was for sportsgrounds? What proportion was for public housing renewal? That could perhaps be a question on notice. Again these are things the government should have known, and it is not unreasonable to expect them to know it.
Here is one that will tickle Mr Hanson’s fancy: payments on behalf of the territory of $1.25 million to meet cash requirements for a shortfall in funding of ACT Policing enabling services. Now, hang on a minute. We took $15 million out of their budget. As a government they put $3 million back in and said, “Aren’t we good? We’re bolstering police.” But they still left Policing $1.25 million for enabling services. I am not sure how the minister for policing comes up with her budget for policing, but you cannot take $15 million out, put $3 million in, still come up short by $1.25 million and say, “We’ve got the budgeting right.”
There was another one for Chief Minister’s—$4.686 million. This was to cover a shortfall in the first home owner scheme grant. We know what the grant is; we know what the trend is. It would be interesting to see what the difference was and why it was so short, as $5 million for first home owners would clearly indicate that something had not been worked out properly.
There was another $5.428 million for concessions. You could make a reasonable case that concessions demand might be hard to estimate, if more people come forward. But it is interesting that they left it until 24 June to ask for that money. It is interesting that we leave it so late. If they are urgent and unexpected, which is what the Treasurer’s advance is there for, you would think that the government would have a better handle on all of this. But, as always, there is the last minute spend in the last week of the financial year—get another $12 million or $14 million out the door. I think it shows that there are problems with this government and their budgeting, and we would expect them to do better in the coming year.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Urban Renewal and Minister for Tourism and Events) (9.09): Section 18 of the FMA provides the Treasurer with the authority to authorise an appropriation if there is an urgent or unforeseen need for expenditure during a fiscal year. The Treasurer’s advance must not exceed one per cent of the total amount appropriated by all appropriation acts for that year. In 2015-16 an amount of $47,400,000, representing one per cent of total appropriations for the financial year, has been included in this appropriation bill, and I commend it to the Assembly.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Total appropriations.
Question put:
That the proposed expenditure be agreed to.
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