Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Supply Bill (No. 3) 2022-2023, together with the Supply Bill (No. 4) 2022-2023 and the Supply (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 2) 2022-2023, seeks appropriations to facilitate the continuation of ongoing government business.

The Supply Bill (No. 3) 2022-2023 provides annual appropriations for proposed expenditure on the ordinary annual services of the government for broadly the last seven months of the 2022-23 financial year. The annual appropriations for expenditure on the ordinary annual services of government for broadly the first five months of 2022-23 were provided by the Supply Act (No. 1) 2022-23.

The Supply Bill (No. 3) 2022-2023 seeks approval for appropriations from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of just under $49 billion. Importantly, this bill must be passed this sitting week to provide certainty of supply for the ongoing business of government for the remainder of 2022-23, thereby ensuring the continuity of program and service delivery. The appropriations proposed in this bill provide an estimated seven-twelfths of the 2022-23 annual appropriations, which are broadly based on the March 2022 budget estimates and adjusted for a small number of programs and entities that received more than five-twelfths of their annual appropriations in the 2022-23 supply acts. This was to provide flexibility for the selected entities to manage uneven expenditure early in the financial year. The bill reflects the structure of government in line with the Administrative Arrangements Orders which commenced on 1 July this calendar year.

I wish to emphasise that this bill seeks only to provide funding for the ongoing business of government for the remainder of the 2022-23 financial year; therefore, no new decisions taken in the October 2022 budget are included in this bill. This arrangement enables conventional parliamentary processes, including the forthcoming Senate estimates hearings, to be followed prior to the enactment of the budget appropriation bills by parliament.

The bill does not contain a provision for an Advance to the Finance Minister, the AFM, because the AFM provisions in the Supply Act (No. 1) 2022-2023, being $2 billion for COVID-19 related expenditure and $400 million for other urgent and unforeseen expenditure, will continue, pending the passage of budget Appropriation Bill (No. 1).

Details of the proposed expenditure are set out in the schedule to the bill, the explanatory memorandum and the updated 2022-23 portfolio budget statements, tabled a short while ago in relation to the October 2022 budget.

I commend the bill to this chamber.

Debate adjourned.

Leave granted for second reading debate to resume at a later hour this day.