GERRY WOOD: Govt ditches trust and integrity by halving time for proper scrutiny of its $6.5b Budget

ESTIMATES are part of a scrutiny process by Parliament which allows Ministers and their departmental heads to be questioned about the Government’s $6.5 billion Budget and how taxpayers’ money is spent.

The Budget is a Bill and just like all other Bills before Parliament it is in the public’s interest that it is thoroughly looked at before it is passed.

Alarmingly this year, the Gunner Government which espouses honesty and integrity and opening up Parliament to the people, has decided to cut scrutiny of the Budget from 60 hours to 30 hours.

In practice, that will mean some ministers like the Education Minister will be questioned for just two hours and Power and Water will now be questioned for half an hour and considering Power and Water just made a $20m loss it is insufficient time.

The disturbing thing about the change in hours is that the Government, which set up a Labor-dominated committee to look at opening up Parliament to the people, decided to ignore the recommendations of its own committee.

The committee was to decide on the number of hours that the Budget would be scrutinised (Recommendation 19) but the Government intervened and said there would be 30 hours for the Budget and another 30 hours at the end of the year for annual reports.

Less time to ask budget questions means less scrutiny and less openness. What the Gunner Government does not want to understand is that there is a Bill before Parliament that will pass the Government’s $6.5 billion Budget in June.

The Estimates Committee scrutinises the Bill, which can but not necessarily include last year’s annual reports as part of that process. The Government now wants to include this year’s annual reports which are not available until the end of the year. Therefore they will not be part of the scrutiny of the Budget as the Bill will have been passed by then.

It is wrong and not in the public’s best interest that scrutiny of the actual Budget Bill will now be 30 hours less than previous years.

This change to the hours is totally unjustified and makes a mockery of Government’s promise of restoring trust in government, proper scrutiny and opening up Parliament.

The Gunner Government won office on a promise of honesty and integrity. If genuine it will allow the normal estimates process of 60 hours to continue as in previous years.

The portfolio committees which the Government intends to set up can still look at the annual reports completely separate from the Budget Estimates process.

When the Government’s motion came before the Parliament to establish this year’s Budget Estimates committee its committee members were forced to vote (Labor solidarity stuff) against their own recommendations. So unless the Gunner Government changes its mind proper scrutiny of its Budget and how it is spending taxpayers’ money will be cut by half.

So why does it want only half a scrutiny of the Budget?

And just to show why some are feeling that the Gunner Government’s promise to open up Parliament to the people is just phony window dressing it appears — from what the Attorney-General Natasha Fyles said on Mix 104.9 recently — the Government is not going to allow two very important Bills — the introduction of the BDR and an ICAC — to be sent off to a portfolio committee to be scrutinised.

I can now see why Ken Parish from CDU gave the Government a D grade.

Gerry Wood is an independent MLA representing the seat of Nelson