David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move amendment (1) on sheet 7732 standing in my name:

(1) Clause 13, page 8 (line 18), omit "$25,000,000,000", substitute "$11,000,000,000".

The bill sets a debit limit for national partnership payments in 2015-16 of $25 billion, but government budget documents propose only $10.6 billion of national partnership payments in that year. So the bill provides a blank cheque to the government of $14.4 billion. My amendment changes the debit limit for national partnership payments from $25 billion to $11 billion. The amendment would do nothing to interfere with the $10.6 billion of national partnership payments proposed by the government in budget documents, but, if the amendment were to pass and if the government substantially increased its planned national partnership payments in the months ahead, the government would be required to seek authority for a higher spending limit in follow-up appropriation bills. Such follow-up appropriation bills are not uncommon. The advantage of this approach is that parliament would be able to see any new national partnership payment proposals in updated budget documents before the parliament agrees to a higher limit on national partnership payments. This would represent a very limited exercise of the parliament's responsibility to scrutinise the government and its spending.