45th Report
Introduction
At its meeting on 11 February 2008, the committee considered
the following matters and reports to the Senate on them accordingly.
- Department of the Senate's budget
- Ordinary annual services of the government
- Parliamentary computer network and filtering.
Department of the Senate’s Budget
The committee considered a
submission from the Clerk of the Senate on the Department of the Senate's
budget. The submission presented proposals to reduce two separate appropriations
for the department.
The first relates to unspent
appropriations which have accumulated from the introduction of accrual
budgeting in 1999 through to the 2004-05 financial year. The unspent
appropriations amount to $15.523 million, of which $11.316 million is calculated
to be surplus to the long-term balance sheet needs of the department.
The second relates to the
appropriations for 2007-08. The government has asked that savings be made in
these appropriations by all departments. Given the very large break between
sittings due to the election period followed by the holiday period, the
department has estimated that it can reduce the 2007-08 appropriation by $400
000 with no impact on its capacity to deliver its stated outputs for the
remainder of the financial year.
The committee also noted a
proposed pro rata application of a one-off 2 per cent efficiency dividend in
2007-08, which would reduce the department's appropriations by $93 000.
After discussing these proposals,
the committee agreed that unspent appropriations from prior years be reduced by
$11.316 million, that the 2007-08 appropriation be reduced by $493 000, and
that the President write to the Minister for Finance and Deregulation accordingly.
The committee has been assured by
the department that these reductions will not affect its ability to deliver
high quality services to the Senate and its committees within any foreseeable
level of Senate activity.
Ordinary annual services of the government
Since 2005, the committee has
been endeavouring to resolve issues arising from the classification of proposed
expenditure in the annual appropriations bills, according to whether it is
expenditure for the ordinary annual services of the government. This
classification arises under section 53 of the Constitution, and is the subject
of an agreement between the Senate and the government known as the Compact of
1965, which has been modified by agreement since that time.
The history of this matter is set
out in Appropriations and Staffing Committee, Annual Report 2005-06,
Appendix 1 (incorporating the committee's 39th Report); and Appropriations
and Staffing Committee, Annual Report 2006-07, Appendix 1.
An updated paper prepared for the
committee is attached as Appendix 1 to this report.
In brief, the committee's
attention has been drawn to the classification of several items in appropriation
bills since 2005 and it is apparent that there has been a misunderstanding
about what the committee agreed to in correspondence with the then minister in
1999, which has resulted in a significant departure from the Compact of 1965.
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.
The committee agreed that the
President should write to the Minister for Finance and Deregulation seeking his
consideration of the classification of proposed expenditure in the annual
appropriations bills according to whether it is expenditure for the ordinary
annual services of the government. The committee also agreed that the President
should seek a response from the minister in time for the formulation of the
appropriation bills for 2008-09.
Parliamentary computer network and filtering
The committee received
correspondence from Senator Fielding on the parliamentary computer network and
the lack of any filtering of internet content for senators and members and
their staff, and invited him to attend the meeting to speak to the matter.
The committee noted that the parliamentary
computer network computers of departmental staff (Departments of the Senate,
House of Representatives and Parliamentary Services, except the Parliamentary Library)
are filtered for inappropriate internet content, including pornography, illegal
drug references, gambling, games, racist or hate sites, violence, illegal
weapons manufacture or procurement, but computers of senators and members and
their staff are not. The committee also noted that the current filtering
mechanism is a 'black list' supplied by the vendor, but the Department of
Parliamentary Services (DPS) is currently engaged in identifying a replacement
filtering system.
Members of the committee expressed
the view that senators should not be treated differently from others who use
the parliamentary computing network, and therefore their computers should be
filtered. The committee considered that this decision is one for the Presiding
Officers, and recommended that the President receive a brief from DPS on the
filtering system and consult with the Speaker on the matter. The committee
recommended that, following consultations, the President make a statement to
the Senate.
(Alan Ferguson)
Chairman
March 2008
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