50th Report
Ordinary annual services of the government
The committee reports to the Senate on the issue of ordinary
annual services of the government.
The committee has been endeavouring to resolve issues
arising from the classification of proposed expenditure in the annual
appropriations bills since 2005.
Expenditure for the ordinary annual services of the government
has always been contained in a separate bill to preserve the Senate's right
under section 53 of the Constitution to amend bills appropriating funds other
than for the ordinary annual services of the government and to comply with
section 54.
The full history of this matter is set out in the
committee's Annual Report 2005-06, Appendix 1 (incorporating the
committee's 39th report) and Annual Report 2006-07,
Appendix 1. It was most recently considered in the committee's 45th
report, presented in March 2008, in which the committee stated:
Recent appropriation
bills have been based on a mistaken assumption that the committee agreed to
abandon the long-standing principle that all new policies would be classified
as not part of the ordinary annual services of the government, and that the
committee agreed that any expenditure falling within an existing outcome would
be classified as ordinary annual services expenditure. On this view,
completely new programs and projects may be started up using money appropriated
for the ordinary annual services of the government, and the Senate is unable to
distinguish between normal ongoing activities of government and new programs
and projects or to identify the expenditure on each of those areas.
The committee
considered that the solution to this problem is to return to the Senate's
original determination, so that new policies for which no money has been
appropriated in previous years are separately identified in their first year in
the appropriation bill which is not for the ordinary annual services of the
government.
At that time, the committee was awaiting a response from the
Minister for Finance and Deregulation to its concerns. A resolution of the
Senate was agreed to on 16 September 2009 in the following terms:
That the Senate—
(a) notes that:
(i) the inclusion of expenditure not for
the ordinary annual services of the government in the appropriation bill
for the ordinary annual services, which is required to be separated from
other appropriations by section 54 of the Constitution, was raised by the
Australian National Audit Office and the Appropriations and Staffing
Committee in 2005;
(ii) the matter has been the subject of
successive reports by the Appropriations and Staffing Committee and the
Finance and Public Administration Committee since that time;
(iii) the Minister for Finance and
Deregulation has not yet carried out an undertaking to provide to the
Appropriations and Staffing Committee proposals whereby this problem might
be overcome;
(b) calls upon the Minister for Finance and
Deregulation to provide a substantive response to the Appropriations and
Staffing Committee on this matter by 16 November 2009.
The Minister responded on 13
November 2009, indicating that the Government saw "no need to change
the Executive's interpretation of the compact as it has been applied since
1999". The Minister's correspondence is reproduced in Appendix 1.
It has long been recognised
that sections 53 and 54 of the Constitution, referring as they do to
"proposed laws", are not justiciable. The matters they raise are
matters to be resolved by the Parliament.[1]
The committee notes the view of the Executive as conveyed by the Minister
for Finance and Deregulation, and notes that the Minister's response has
not provided a way forward to resolve this difference of view.
That being the case, the
committee has resolved that, consistent with its approach to this issue
over many years, as most recently expressed in its 45th
report, the solution to the problem is to return to the Senate's
original determination, so that new policies for which no money has been
appropriated in previous years are separately identified in their first
year in the appropriation bill which is not for the ordinary annual
services of the government.
Past resolutions of the
Senate have declared the Senate's view of items that are or are not
ordinary annual services of the government. Further changes were agreed to
in correspondence between the committee and the government, tabled in the
Senate on 3 November 1988 and 4 April 1989, and in the committee's Thirtieth
Report, adopted by the Senate on 22 April 1999.
The committee recommends that:
(a) the Senate restate its
position on ordinary annual services of the government, in a new resolution
incorporating the resolutions of 17 February 1977 and 8 December 2004, and
the changes agreed to in 1988, 1989 and 1999;
and
(b) the President continue
to draw to the attention of the Minister for Finance and Deregulation any
items of expenditure which appear to be inappropriately included in the
appropriation bill for the ordinary annual services of the government.
A proposed resolution is in
Appendix 2.
JJ Hogg
Chairman
June 2010 |
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