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CONTENTS
Passage History
Purpose
Background
Main Provisions
Endnotes
Contact Officer and Copyright Details
Appropriation (Parliamentary
Departments) Bill 1998-99
Date Introduced: 12 May 1998
House: House of Representatives
Portfolio: Finance and Administration
Commencement: On Royal Assent.
To appropriate
$138 090 000 from the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) for the
recurrent and capital expenditure of the five parliamentary
departments for the 1998-99 financial year.
This Bill forms part of a three-part package
relating to government finance and covers expenditure for the five
parliamentary departments. The other parts of the package are:
- Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 1998-99 which covers expenditure for
the ordinary annual services of the government; and
- Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 1998-99 which covers expenditure
on:
- capital works and services
- payments to the States and Territories
- expenditure on any new programs not covered by other
legislation.
(a) Glossary of Terms
Appropriation - is the setting apart,
assigning or applying to a particular use or to a particular person
a sum of money. In the budget context an appropriation usually
refers to an authorisation by Parliament to draw on funds from the
Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF).
Budget Outlays - refer to the net cost
to the taxpayer of providing government services.
Appropriations/payments out of the CRF are adjusted to take account
(for example) of many government receipts. Hence a hypothetical
government program 'XYZ' may have a total appropriation of $600
million but this may only represent budget outlays of $500 million
if the 'XYZ' receives income of $100 million from other (non
budget) sources.
Running costs - are the full current
and minor capital costs incurred by a department or agency in
providing government services for which the department or agency is
responsible. For many departments, staff salaries will represent
the largest proportion of such costs.
(b) Overview
Since 1982, the appropriations for the
Parliamentary Departments have been effected by a separate Bill.
This followed the Fraser Government's consideration of the Report
of the Senate Select Committee (the Select Committee) on
Parliamentary Appropriations and Staffing tabled on 18 August
1981.
Under current arrangements, the executive
government maintains control over the contents of the Bill as
introduced. In theory however, as the Appropriation (Parliamentary
Departments) Bill is not for the ordinary annual services of the
government, it may be amended by the Senate.
The Public Service Act 1922 provides
that the administration of the Parliament is undertaken by five
Parliamentary Departments - the Department of the Senate, the
Department of the House of Representatives, the Joint House
Department, the Department of the Parliamentary Reporting Staff
(DPRS) and the Department of the Parliamentary Library.
The Department of the House of Representatives
and the Department of the Senate are responsible for the provision
of procedural, information and administrative services to Members
and Senators respectively. The Joint House Department performs
building management, maintenance and catering functions associated
with Parliament House. DPRS provides reporting, information
technology, telecommunications and broadcasting services to the
Parliament through Hansard, the Parliamentary Information Systems
Office (PISO) and the Sound and Vision Office (SAVO). The
Department of the Parliamentary Library is responsible for the
provision of library, reference and research services to the
Parliament.
This Bill appropriates a total of $138 090 000
for all five departments for the 1998-99 financial year.
The Schedule in the Bill deals with the
allocation of expenditure for each department.(1) Expenditure for
each department is then divided into running costs and
other services.
(c) Impact on Departments
House of Representatives
Total underlying outlays fall from $42.673m in
1997-98 to an estimated $42.187m in the current year and are
estimated to fall to $41.489m by 1999-2000.(2)
The Department notes in its 1998-99 Portfolio
Budget Statement that:
The Department's running costs
appropriation for 1998-99 will be $23.994m which reflects a
decrease of $0.128m from last year's net appropriation of $24.122m.
The decrease reflects the effect of continuation of the 1%
efficiency dividend, application of a price parameter adjustment, a
variation in the level of carryover, supplementation for the cost
of competitive neutrality charges for the Australian Protective
Service and user charges, and a reduction reflecting a transfer of
the Members' travelling allowance function to the Department of
Finance and Administration.
Priority will continue to be accorded
to the department's procedural and advisory services in support of
the Chamber and the Main Committee and to procedural, research,
analytical and drafting services to support committees established
by the House of Representatives and certain joint committees.
Priority will also be accorded to services to Members, and to
Parliamentary security.(3)
Department of the Senate
Total underlying outlays rise from $32.982m in
1997-98 to an estimated $35.792m in the current year but are
estimated to fall to $33.376m by 1999-2000.(4)
The Department notes in its 1998-99 Portfolio
Budget Statement that:
The proposed appropriation of
$26.365m for running costs and other services should be adequate
for all anticipated departmental purposes. This figure comprises
$25.950m in running costs and $0.415m in other services funding for
the Parliament's Citizenship Visit Program (CVP). While the figure
reflects a 1% efficiency dividend deduction applicable to all
Commonwealth departments, there has been no other budget cut as
such and no new policy proposals requiring additional
funding.
The proposed appropriation of
$26.365m is $0.351m higher than the estimated appropriation for
1997-98. In general terms, this reflects deductions for the
efficiency dividend ($0.240m), transfer to the Department of
Finance and Administration of the Senate department's previous
function in administering senators' travelling allowance ($0.054m,
$0.030m in future years), and recovery of superannuation
supplementation ($0.185m). Additions include adjustments and
supplementation for the cost of living ($0.361m), CVP ($0.029m),
new Australian Protective Service imposts ($0.147m) an increased
carry-over between 1997-98 and 1998-99 ($0.270m) and minor items
($0.023m).(5)
Joint House Department
Total underlying outlays rise from $33.105m in
1997-98 to an estimated $35.958m in the current year but are
estimated to fall to $32.590m by 1999-2000.(6)
Department of Parliamentary Reporting Staff
Total underlying outlays rise from $32.872m in
1997-98 to an estimated $33.273m in the current year but are
estimated to fall to $32.512m by 1999-2000.(7)
The Department notes in its 1998-99 Portfolio
Budget Statement that:
The principal Budget adjustments for
1998-99 are a 1% reduction in running costs by means of the annual
efficiency dividend imposed by government on the majority of budget
funded departments and agencies and a reduction of $0.444m in
telecommunications funds as a result of the whole of the government
savings hypothecated to individual departments and agencies.
A permanent reduction of $0.470m in
the Forward Estimates from 1999-2000 reflects savings in
telecommunications costs flowing from 'whole of government'
telecommunications arrangements announced in the 1996-97 Budget.
The Forward Estimates for 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 are also reduced
by $0.100m and $0.791m respectively to reflect information
technology infrastructure savings also flowing from 'whole of
government' information technology measures.(8)
Department of the Parliamentary Library
Total underlying outlays rise from $14.810m in
1997-98 to an estimated $15.255m in the current year but are
estimated to fall to $14.753m by 1999-2000.(9)
The Department notes in its 1998-99 Portfolio
Budget Statement that:
DPL's running costs base for 1998-99
has fallen slightly from $15.034m in 1997-98 to $15.004m in
1998-99, but the only significant variation has been the normal 1%
efficiency dividend.
Salaries will absorb 72.4% of DPL's
running costs in 1998-99, with collection development accounting
for 10% of running costs. A further 5.8% is allocated for
information technology, which is crucial to the Library's capacity
to deliver quality services in the time frames required by Senators
and Members. The remaining 11.8% while notionally discretionary
expenditure, is committed to mandatory charges (such as
compensation premiums) and essential service support (such as
training and development of staff) fundamental to DPL's future
effectiveness.
The implementation of the single
client service program was finalised in 1997-98 and improvements in
client service continued to be made through integrated and flexible
use of the combined skills of both the information and research
specialists.(10)
Clause 4 provides that the Minister for Finance
is authorised to appropriate a total of $138 090 000 from the CRF
for the purposes listed in the Schedule of the Bill. These funds
amount to the estimated cost of the services provided by all five
parliamentary departments for the 1998-99 financial year.
Clause 6 allows the Minister,
based on determinations of the Presiding Officers, to draw
additional funds from the CRF for increases in salaries and
payments during the year ending 30 June 1999. Any additional
amounts drawn must be reported to the Parliament.
Clauses 4 and 6 must be read
with Clause 12. This provides that amounts
appropriated are not to be debited from the CRF after 30 June
1999.
Clause 11 allows both the
President and the Speaker to make advances of up to $300 000 each
to cover unforseen, erroneously omitted or understated
appropriations proposed by the Bill in relation to the Senate or
the House of Representatives.
In addition, the President and the Speaker can
make a joint advance totalling $1 000 000 to cover urgent and
unforeseen circumstances in relation to the Parliamentary Reporting
Staff, the Parliamentary Library and the Joint House
Department.
- Budget Paper No. 4 1998-99, 83.
- Department of the House of Representatives, Portfolio
Budget Statements 1998-99, 9.
- Ibid., 4.
- Department of the Senate, Portfolio Budget Statements
1998-99, 8.
- Ibid., 4.
- Joint House Department, Portfolio Budget Statements
1998-99, 17.
- Department of the Parliamentary Reporting Staff, Portfolio
Budget Statements 1998-99, 8.
- Ibid: Opening Statement to President and Speaker.
- Department of the Parliamentary Library, Portfolio Budget
Statements 1998-99, 14
- Ibid., 5
Ross Kilmurray
25 May 1998
Bills Digest Service
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ISSN 1328-8091
© Commonwealth of Australia 1998
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Published by the Department of the Parliamentary Library,
1998.
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