Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to table an explanatory memorandum relating to the bill and to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

CHARTER OF BUDGET HONESTY AMENDMENT (INTERGENERATIONAL REPORT) BILL 2015

The purpose of the Charter of Budget Honesty Amendment (Intergenerational Report) Bill 2015 (the Bill), is torequire that the intergenerational reports are prepared by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO), as part of its statutory obligation, instead of Treasury, every five years.

The Bill will also enable the Parliamentary Budget Office to request a Commonwealth body (who must then comply) to provide information that is relevant to the preparation of the intergenerational report, such as access to information regarding the contingency reserve fund, which they currently do not have access to.

As an independent, fiscal research and analysis institution based within the Parliament, the PBO is an extremely positive development for Australia's democracy. It reinforces the often overlooked constitutional principle that the Parliament, not the executive is responsible for the provision of finance for public purposes.

Their periodic and independent reports on the state of the nation's finances and the public work they do for committees of the Parliament has allowed another respected public institution to sit alongside the Departments of Treasury and Finance in offering views that may deviate from, or even contradict the views of these Departments or the Government of the day.

The establishment of the PBO has strengthened the transparency of our democracy, and provided greater integrity to the policy development process, which is why tasking them with drafting the intergenerational report every five years ensures that political interference with the content of the report does not happen again.

The 2015 Intergenerational Report, handed down by the Treasurer on the 5th of March proves just how partisan this important document has become. Credible and rigorous intergenerational reporting would examine, for example, inequality of wealth and incomes, and global warming and pollution from fossil fuels as global trends. It must be rewritten by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office in order to restore credibility to the Intergenerational Report process.

While the report acknowledged the huge pressures that will be placed on our younger generations as they support a burgeoning population entering retirement, there was no effort in the government's report to propose how these challenges might be met. For example, Australia's superannuation system is no longer achieving what it was intended to do as the next two years will see the concessions for super flowing overwhelmingly to the wealthiest are beginning to cost the government more than the aged pension. Significant reform is required.

Silence on these challenges is counterproductive, because it compounds the repair required for future governments.

Nowhere is this more paramount than for global warming. The more we delay action and ignore it, the greater the overhaul of our economy must be. Ironically enough, this means that those resisting these necessary changes in order to keep things the same are actually the ones doing the most to undermine the stability of our economy, and opportunities for future generations.

It is impossible to plan for the future without preparing for a warming planet and extreme weather events which will affect everything from public health and well-being, agricultural profitability, infrastructure degradation, housing, aged-care, immigration from our low-lying island neighbours, insurance costs, labour productivity and our mix of exports.

Governments cannot ignore our greatest threat. That is why the intergenerational report must become the responsibility of the independent Parliamentary Budget Office and not subject to political priorities divorced from reality.

I commend this Bill to the Senate.

I table the explanatory memorandum and I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.