Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of Senator Ellison, I present the 9th report of 2008 of the Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills. I also lay on the table Scrutiny of Bills Alert Digest No. 9 of 2008, dated 17 September 2008.

Ordered that the report be printed.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

I seek leave to incorporate Senator Ellison’s tabling statement in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The statement read as follows—

In tabling the Committee’s Alert Digest No. 9 of 2008, I would like to draw the Senate’s attention to clause 64 of the Safe Work Australia Bill 2008, which establishes the Safe Work Australia Special Account. 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. Clause 64 of the Safe Work Australia Bill 2008 is, therefore, establishing a standing appropriation.

Standing appropriations enable entities to spend money from Commonwealth revenue, subject to meeting legislative criteria. Their significance from an accountability perspective is that, once they have been enacted, the expenditure they involve does not require regular parliamentary approval and, therefore, escapes parliamentary control. They are not subject to approval through the standard annual appropriations process.

In its Fourteenth Report of 2005, the Committee stated that:

The appropriation of money from Commonwealth revenue is a legislative function. The committee considers that, by allowing the executive government to spend unspecified amounts of money for an indefinite time into the future, provisions which establish standing appropriations may, depending on the circumstances of the legislation, infringe upon the committee’s terms of reference relating to the delegation and exercise of legislative power.

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

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

In respect to the Safe Work Australia Bill 2008, the Committee noted from the explanatory memorandum that the amounts to be credited to the Safe Work Australia Special Account will come from the States and Territories and the Commonwealth, and will be the subject of an Intergovernmental Agreement. The Committee has sought advice from the Minister whether the Commonwealth contribution to Safe Work Australia could be subject to approval through the standard annual appropriations process, thus ensuring ongoing Parliamentary oversight.

I commend the Committee’s Alert Digest No. 9 of 2008 and Ninth Report of 2008 to the Senate.

Question agreed to.