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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-04-29 Daily Xml
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Economic Stimulus Package

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (14:22): My question is to the Treasurer regarding public finances. What are the oversight arrangements to monitor and report on the government's stimulus expenditure in response to bushfires and COVID-19? How frequently is this reported to him as Treasurer? Given that the Premier has described this as an 'immediate economic stimulus', how much will be spent this financial year?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:23): I thank the honourable member for her question. Together with the usual financial monitoring processes that Treasury involves itself in with various departments and agencies, there is the added element of the budget cabinet committee process. There are also discussions at cabinet and there are also occasional discussions that I might have with individual ministers. To use a basketball phrase the Leader of the Opposition would well understand, it's a full court press—it's not man to man defence or offence, it's a full court press all over the fiscal court, the Treasury department, the Treasurer and others monitoring what occurs.

The reality, as I have indicated on a number of occasions, however, is that the Treasurer is generally not the service delivery agency. All we do is allocate the funding to line ministers or service ministers. Indeed, as the Minister for Health, my colleague, has just outlined, whilst there was agreement in relation to country hospital maintenance funding, the responsibility for delivery of that rests with the line minister. We are a team. We rely on the undoubted competence of my ministerial colleagues in carrying out the collective decisions of the team that is the cabinet.

Specific questions in relation to country hospital maintenance go to the Minister for Health. If it is a regional road project, they go to my very hardworking and competent ministerial colleague the Hon. Stephan Knoll, and similarly with all other allocations that might be made. Whilst there is oversight, the responsibility for the delivery of the expenditures rests with the line ministers.

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