Budget estimates 2017-18

2017-10-30

Ms PENNICUIK (Southern Metropolitan) — I would like to speak briefly also on the report of the 2017–18 budget estimates. Can I say, as a member of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee for the last three years and also in the years 2009 and 2010, that with this report and the previous reports of the last three years, the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee and particularly the secretariat have been striving to make these very readable and comprehensive reports on the budget estimates process, based on the hearings of the budget estimates but also on the questionnaires that go out to the departments prior to that. As Ms Shing said, the report also has quite a number of very good recommendations with regard to increasing the transparency and accountability of the budget estimates process. I think these are very good developments.

The Public Accounts and Estimates Committee just last week conducted its first forum on demystifying the budget papers, and I have to say that that was an idea that I put to the committee. Many people do find budget papers quite bamboozling and confusing, and a lot of electorate officers and other people did attend that forum and found it very useful. I think this report is also heading in that direction. It is making what goes on in that budget process much more understandable, comprehensive and useful to members of Parliament and members of the community, and that is what we should be striving for.

I recommend that everybody read this report from cover to cover. They will find a lot in it. In saying that, I express my thanks to the secretariat and staff of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, who should be commended for the work they have put into this report.

Motion agreed to.