Page 1153 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 2 April 2019
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Proposed new clause 5A.
MR COE (Yerrabi—Leader of the Opposition) (11.54): I move amendment No 2 circulated in my name, which inserts a new clause 5A [see schedule 1 at page 1218]. This amendment seeks to insert a new requirement for reasons to be provided as to why the Treasurer’s advance is being used. I know the government’s position is that this is duplicating reporting and that this information is already contained in the authorisation. However, what is included in the authorisation has not been legislatively set and has not been stated.
There is not a clearly defined legislative requirement for reasons to be provided, as there is in other parts of the Financial Management Act. That is why we believe these amendments remain necessary and relevant. The explanation can take whatever form the government wishes. However, we believe the reasons should be explicitly stated and included in the legislation.
The bill is quite clearly based on the current provisions for the Treasurer’s advance contained within the Financial Management Act. Furthermore, the bill makes minor changes to the structure of the legislation around the Treasurer’s advance. It makes sense that the use of these powers is consistent and that an explanation should be provided where these discretionary funds are used. It is an entirely reasonable amendment to add transparency to this discretionary process.
A case would already have to be prepared for the Treasurer to be satisfied that an additional appropriation and additional funds were necessary and to determine the amount. Therefore, this due diligence should be very easy to comply with. If a Treasurer were in receipt of this information, all he or she would need to do would be to simply pass it on to the Assembly.
We will later be moving similar amendments to the capital works reserve that would require reasons for the appropriation and return disbursements. It makes logical sense that there be consistency between these two powers, given that they are very similar. We should not have different levels of scrutiny applied to the exercise of these discretionary powers.
MR BARR (Kurrajong—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Social Inclusion and Equality, Minister for Tourism and Special Events and Minister for Trade, Industry and Investment) (11.56): The government will not support this amendment, as the proposed amendments specified by the opposition leader are already provided for in the current legislation. Instruments authorising a Treasurer’s advance are to be tabled as part of the quarterly financial reporting requirements under section 18C(2)(a) of the legislation. Under this section, a copy of the Treasurer’s authorisation, which includes the statement of reasons, is to be provided to the Assembly through the next financial statement, which of course is provided to the Assembly quarterly. These provisions are already contained within the legislation.
Amendment negatived.
Proposed new clause 5A negatived.
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