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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 1146 asked in the Legislative Council on 21 October 2020 by Hon Martin Aldridge

Parliament: 40 Session: 1

ROYALTIES FOR REGIONS — 2020–21 STATE BUDGET

1146. Hon MARTIN ALDRIDGE to the Minister for Regional Development:

I refer to the royalties for regions expenditure found in budget paper No 3 starting from page 171.

(1) Please identify any projects or initiatives that prior to the 2020–21 budget were funded by the consolidated fund and are now funded by the royalties for regions fund.

(2) Please provide a detailed breakdown of the line item ''Administered Items'' in 2020–21 and across the forward estimates.

(3) Why is there a forecast cut of $10 million to the administration of the fund in 2021–22 that is sustained across the forward estimates?

(4) How is the underspend provision calculated and why has it not been forecast in the last two years of the forward estimates?

Hon ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:

I thank the member for the question.

(1) There are no new items in the 2020–21 royalties for regions budget that were previously funded by the consolidated account.

(2) The administered items budget line provides funding mainly for commitments that require further planning to deliver the proposals. It is not appropriate to provide a funding breakdown until projects are properly scoped and costed.

(3) Rather than an apparent cut being forecast to the administration line item, the budgeted funding of $94.8 million for 2020–21 is slightly higher than it would ordinarily be. This funding level reflects that some operational funds have been brought forward from 2021–22 to 2020–21 to support critical industry programs and also that some program funding was carried over from 2019–20 to 2020–21.

(4) The underspend provision recognises that historically there has been an underspend in the royalties for regions annual budget. Although I understand that it was the standard practice for the previous government to include an underspend provision for all years of the budget, this has the potential to build up a significant unfunded liability. We consider it is financially responsible to include an underspend provision for only the first two years of the forward estimates.