Bills Digest No. 153 2004–05
Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments)
Bill (No. 1)
2005-2006
WARNING:
This Digest was prepared for debate. It reflects the legislation as
introduced and does not canvass subsequent amendments. This Digest
does not have any official legal status. Other sources should be
consulted to determine the subsequent official status of the
Bill.
CONTENTS
Passage History
Purpose
Background
Main Provisions
Endnotes
Contact Officer & Copyright Details
Passage History
Appropriation
(Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1)
2005-2006
Date
Introduced: 10 May
2005
House: House of Representatives
Portfolio: Finance and
Administration
Commencement:
Royal
Assent
To appropriate $167.413 million
for the recurrent and capital expenditure of the three
parliamentary departments for the 2005-2006 financial year.
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 on Parliamentary Appropriations and Staffing which was
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 Parliamentary Services Act 1999 provides that the
administration of the Parliament is undertaken by at least two
parliamentary departments. Only the Departments of the Senate and
the House of Representatives (the chamber departments) are created
by force of law. Other departments may be established or abolished
by resolutions passed by each House(1). In August 2003
the Senate and the House of Representatives both resolved that
there would be a Department of Parliamentary Services to support
the work of the Parliament,(2) and that it would be
established by amalgamating the Joint House Department with the
Departments of the Parliamentary Reporting Staff and the
Parliamentary Library. The amalgamation was recommended by the 2002
Review by the Parliamentary Service Commissioner of aspects of
the administration of the Parliament, more popularly known as
the Podger Report.(3)
The new Department of Parliamentary Services commenced on 1
February 2004. The President of the Senate and the Speaker of the
House of Representatives are joint Presiding Officers responsible
of the Department.
One of the major reasons in the Podger report for amalgamating
the three departments was cost savings.(4) The report
suggested that these savings might:
imply significant resources could be redirected to
core parliamentary business, eg to improve the quality of services
to Senators and Members.(5)
In 2005-2006 the required savings from the amalgamation of the
former joint parliamentary departments is $6.26
million.(6)
A significant part of these savings appear to have been
redirected to meet increased Parliamentary security costs. In the
2003-04 budget, $6 million was provided to the chamber departments
for increased security in Parliament House. The Government also
decided that the parliamentary departments were to fund offsetting
savings to pay for this additional expenditure, and as a result,
the next year s budgets for each of the parliamentary departments
was reduced by a share of the total savings required. On 1 July
2004 the funding for the security function was transferred from the
chamber departments to the Department of Parliamentary
Services.(7)
In 2004-05 the Government provided additional capital funding of
$11.7 million for the construction of a security barrier around the
perimeter of Parliament Drive and for other associated security
measures.(8) This year, 2005-06, the Government is
providing capital funding of $0.476 million to upgrade the
audio-visual facilities and provide acoustic support in the Cabinet
Room and the two Party rooms used by the Government and the
Opposition in the House of Representatives wing of Parliament
House. According to the Budget papers, this additional capital
funding is to ensure that the rooms have the same level of facility
as committee meeting rooms in Parliament House.(9)
In this Budget, the rate of the efficiency dividend has
increased from 1 per cent to 1.25 per cent. The efficiency dividend
is a mechanism through which the Government achieves a share of
productivity gains through the more efficient delivery of services
by departments.(10) The increase in the efficiency
dividend reduces the appropriation to the parliamentary
departments. It is cumulative in its application and will therefore
have an increasing effect in future years.
Clause 4 provides that Portfolio Budget
Statements are to be considered as relevant extrinsic material
which may assist in the interpretation of the Appropriation
(Parliamentary Departments) legislation. Portfolio Budget
Statements are statements prepared by portfolios (or by departments
in the case of the parliamentary departments) to explain the Budget
appropriations in terms of outcomes. Their purpose is to assist in
explaining the proposed appropriations in the Appropriation
Bills.
Clause 6 lists the total amount appropriated by
the Bill that is $167.413 million. This is approximately $11
million less than was contained in the Appropriation
(Parliamentary Departments) Act (No. 1) 2004-05. The
appropriations for the chamber departments have decreased by around
$10 million each, with the Department of Parliamentary Services
receiving an increase of over $8 million. These changes are largely
the result of the transfer of the security function from the
chamber departments to the Department of Parliamentary Services and
the required savings from the amalgamation of the three
parliamentary support departments.
Clause 7 provides that for departmental items,
the Finance Minister may issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund
amounts that do not exceed that listed in the Schedule to the Bill,
and that such funds must be used for the departmental expenses of
the relevant parliamentary department. Departmental expenses are
incurred by parliamentary departments in providing the programs and
services indicated in the Portfolio Budget Statements.
Subclause 7(3) provides that where the amount is
for remuneration or allowances payable under the Remuneration
Tribunal Act 1973 or the Remuneration and Allowances Act
1990, the Minister for Finance must issue that amount.
For administered expenses, clause 8 provides
that the Finance Minister may issue the lesser of two amounts;
either the amount specified in the item or the amount the Minister
determines to be the administered expenses incurred by the
parliamentary department during the current year. Administered
expenses are funds administered by the parliamentary department on
behalf of the Commonwealth for its purposes. An example is the
Citizenship Visits Program funded jointly by the Department of the
House of Representatives and the Department of the Senate and
managed by the House of Representatives.
Clause 11 provides that the responsible
Presiding Officer may request the Finance Minister to make a
written determination reducing the appropriation for an item in the
budget of a parliamentary department by an amount specified in the
determination. The amount of reduction is to be no greater than the
amount requested, or, where payments have already been made from
the Consolidated Revenue Fund, the difference between the amount
appropriated to an item and the amount already paid
(proposed paragraph 11(4)(b).) Reductions can only
be made at the request of the responsible Presiding Officer
(proposed subclauses 11(1) and
11(3)). Proposed subclause 11(8)
provides that a determination made under this section may be
disallowed by either House of Parliament in accordance with the
provisions of section 42 of the Legislative Instruments Act
2003. However, the sunsetting provisions contained in Part 6
of the Legislative Instruments Act do not apply to such a
determination.
Under section 31 of the Financial Management and
Accountability Act 1997, departments have access to certain
monies received in payment for services (clause
12). Services provided by parliamentary departments that
may attract receipts include contributions from participants
towards the cost of conferences and seminars conducted by the
departments, asset sales, monies for accrued leave entitlements of
transferred employees, and interest earned on fixed term deposits
with the Reserve Bank of Australia.
Under clause 13, the responsible Presiding
Officer/s will be able to increase the amount allocated to a
departmental item to a maximum of $200 000 for each of the
three Departments.
Clause 14 is similar to clause
13 but deals with increases in items due to unforseen and
urgent circumstances. The maximum increase under clause
14 is a total of $300 000 each for the chamber
departments, and a total of $1 million for the Department of
Parliamentary Services.
Clause 17 will appropriate the funds for
services specified in Schedule 1 from the
Consolidated Revenue Fund.
Endnotes
-
Parliamentary Service Act 1999, section 54.
-
The House of Representatives agreed to the resolution on 14
August 2003 and the Senate on 18 August 2003.
-
Podger, Andrew, Review by the Parliamentary Service
Commissioner of aspects of the administration of the Parliament:
final report, Canberra, 2002, recommendation 5, p. 8.
-
ibid., see particularly pp. 40 and 45 46.
-
ibid., p. 46.
-
Department of Parliamentary Services, Portfolio Budget
Statement 2005-06, p. 34.
-
Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997,
section 32.
-
Department of Parliamentary Services, Portfolio Budget
Statement 2005-06, p. 35.
-
Budget Measures 2005-06, Budget Paper No. 2, p. at:
http://www.aph.gov.au/Budget/2005-06/bp2/html/capital-06.htm
-
House of Representatives, Portfolio Budget Statements
2005-06, p. 20.
Rosemary Bell
20 May 2005
Bills Digest Service
Information and Research Services
This paper has been prepared to support the work of the
Australian Parliament using information available at the time of
production. The views expressed do not reflect an official position
of the Information and Research Service, nor do they constitute
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ISSN 1328-8091
© Commonwealth of Australia 2005
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Published by the Parliamentary Library, 2005.
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