Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

As Chair of the Scrutiny of Bills Committee, I lay on the table Scrutiny of Bills Alert Digest No. 13 of 2008, dated 26 November 2008, and I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I seek leave to have my tabling statement incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The statement read as follows—

In tabling the Committee’s Alert Digest No. 13 of 2008, I would like to draw the Senate’s attention to the Nation-building Funds Bill 2008.

This bill establishes no fewer than 10 Special Accounts for the purposes of the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997. If an Act establishes a Special Account and identifies the purposes of the account then, by virtue of section 21 of the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997, the Consolidated Revenue Fund is appropriated for those purposes, thereby establishing a standing appropriation.

The Committee has determined that, as part of its standard procedures for reporting on bills, it should draw Senators’ attention to the presence in bills of standing appropriations. It will do so under provisions 1(a)(iv) and (v) of its terms of reference, which require the Committee to report on whether bills:

(iv)

inappropriately delegate legislative powers; or

(v)

insufficiently subject the exercise of legislative power to parliamentary scrutiny.

In scrutinising standing appropriations, the Committee looks to the explanatory memorandum for an explanation of the reason for the standing appropriation. In addition, the Committee likes to see:

• some limitation placed on the amount of funds that may be so appropriated; and
• a sunset clause that ensures the appropriation cannot continue indefinitely without any further reference to the Parliament.

Three main financial asset funds will be established by the Nation-building Funds Bill—the Building Australia Fund (BAF), the Education Investment Fund (EIF) and the Health and Hospitals Fund (HHF)—along with ‘accounts within accounts’ relating to specific areas of infrastructure, through which payments will be channelled.

The bill specifies the purposes for which amounts can be debited from the various Special Accounts.

The Committee has noted from the explanatory memorandum and the Minister’s second reading speech that the initial credit of funds to the BAF, the EIF and the HHF will be limited in amount.

Although the bill does not specify a limit on the amount of funds that may be subsequently credited to the Special Accounts, the Committee notes that the funds can only be used for very specific purposes. Further, the explanatory memorandum to the bill explicitly states that the Government’s intention is that payments against the BAF, EIF and HHF appropriations ‘will be transparent and subject to parliamentary scrutiny with the aim of ensuring a managed and orderly rate of expenditure’. From the 2009-10 financial year onwards, the annual Appropriation Acts will specify the maximum limit on the amount that can be paid out from the Funds in a particular financial year.

In light of the fact that the money in each of the Special Accounts is not available to be spent at the Government’s unfettered discretion, the Committee considers that these standing (special) appropriations do not raise the same concerns as other Special Accounts to which the Committee has previously drawn the attention of Senators.

I commend the Committee’s Alert Digest No. 13 of 2008 to the Senate.

Question agreed to.