2006
2006
2011-01-25
act
government
publicgeneral
act.reprint
allinforce
2006-10-17
2006-10-17
0
2011-01-25
act-2010-083
2006
none
act-2006-089
0ef31a3e-a66e-4afd-974b-0853e1212d88
989e312e-7cce-4b8f-8439-df8bb2ab3a3d
Repeal:
The Act was repealed by sec 31 of the Parliamentary Budget Officer Act 2010 No
83 with effect from 25.1.2011.
An Act to enable the Government and the
Opposition to obtain and release an independent assessment by the Treasury of
the cost of election promises before a State general
election.
Part 1Preliminary
1Name of
Act
This Act is the Charter of Budget
Honesty (Election Promises Costing) Act
2006.
2Commencement
This Act commences on the date of assent to this
Act.
3Definitions
(1)
In this Act:
costing
request means a request made under Part 2 to the Secretary
of the Treasury for the preparation of a costing of a publicly announced or
proposed policy.
State
election means the day for taking the poll at a general
election of members of the Legislative Assembly.
the
pre-election half-yearly budget review means the last
half-yearly review publicly released by the Treasurer before a State election
under section 8 (3) of the Public Finance
and Audit Act 1983.
the
pre-election period—see section 6.
Treasury
costing means a costing, under Part 3 by the Secretary of
the Treasury, of a publicly announced or proposed
policy.
(2)
A reference in this Act to the Premier or Leader
of the Opposition includes a reference to his or her nominee for the purposes
of this Act, being a person nominated by the Premier or Leader of the
Opposition (as the case requires) by notice in writing to the Secretary of the
Treasury.
4Notes
Notes included in this Act do not form part of
this Act.
Part 2Requests for Treasury costing
of election promises
5Request for costing by Premier
or Leader of the Opposition
(1)
The Premier may, in accordance with this Act,
request the Secretary of the Treasury to prepare costings of publicly
announced or proposed policies.
(2)
The Leader of the Opposition may, in accordance
with this Act, request the Secretary of the Treasury to prepare costings of
publicly announced or proposed policies.
(3)
A costing request may relate to proposed changes
in expenditure or revenue.
6Period during which costings
may be requested
A costing request may be made at any time during
the period of 60 days before a State election (the pre-election
period).
Note—
For the purposes of the general election due to
be held on 24 March 2007, the pre-election period will commence on 23 January
2007.
7Requirements relating to the
making of costing requests
A costing request must:
(a)
be in writing, and
(b)
outline fully each policy to be costed, giving
all relevant details for the purpose of costing the policy,
and
(c)
state the purpose or intention of the
policy.
8Withdrawal of costing
request
(1)
The Premier or Leader of the Opposition may, by
notice in writing given to the Secretary of the Treasury, withdraw any costing
request that he or she has made.
(2)
A costing request may be withdrawn at any time
before the Treasury costing is provided to the Premier or Leader of the
Opposition.
Note—
Section 12 (4) also provides that after a
Treasury costing of a policy is provided, the Premier or Leader of the
Opposition may withdraw the policy from the list of Treasury costed policies
included in the budget impact statement prepared and released by the Secretary
under that section.
Part 3Treasury costing of election
promises
9Treasury costing of individual
policies
(1)
As soon as possible after receiving a costing
request, the Secretary of the Treasury is to:
(a)
prepare a costing of the policy or policies
concerned, and
(b)
provide the costing to the Premier (if the
request was made by the Premier) or to the Leader of the Opposition (if the
request was made by the Leader of the Opposition).
(2)
The Secretary of the Treasury is to inform the
Premier or the Leader of the Opposition (as the case requires) of any costing
that the Secretary is unable to provide and of the reason that the costing
cannot be provided.
(3)
If the Secretary of the Treasury needs more
information for the purpose of costing a policy, the Secretary may ask the
Premier or Leader of the Opposition (as the case requires) to provide that
information in writing.
(4)
The Premier and the Leader of the Opposition are
required to notify the Secretary of the Treasury of the public announcement of
policies that have been costed by the Secretary.
10Public release of Treasury
costings by Premier or Leader of the Opposition
(1)
The Premier or the Leader of the Opposition may
publicly release a Treasury costing provided by the Secretary of the
Treasury.
(2)
If the Secretary of the Treasury considers that a
Treasury costing provided by the Secretary has been publicly misrepresented,
the Secretary may issue a public statement to correct the
misrepresentation.
11Public release of Treasury
costings by Secretary of the Treasury
(1)
The Secretary of the Treasury is required to
publicly release a costing request and the Treasury costing for the policy
when the Premier or Leader of the Opposition (as the case requires) notifies
the Secretary that the policy has been publicly
announced.
(2)
When the Secretary of the Treasury releases a
budget impact statement under section 12, the Secretary is also required to
publicly release costing requests and the Treasury costings for all policies
listed in the budget impact statement.
12Budget impact statements for
all costed policies
(1)
The Secretary of the Treasury is to prepare,
during the pre-election period, a budget impact statement for all Treasury
costed Government policies and a budget impact statement for all Treasury
costed Opposition policies.
(2)
A budget impact statement is to list the relevant
Treasury costed policies and show:
(a)
a summary of the assessed financial impact of
each costed policy, and
(b)
the total net financial impact of all the costed
policies,
on the current year’s State budget and on the
forward estimates for the period to which the pre-election half-yearly budget
review relates. The budget impact statement is also to show the impact of all
the costed policies on the State’s net financial
liabilities.
(3)
The Secretary of the Treasury is to provide, on
the day that is the fifteenth last day before the State election, a draft
budget impact statement to the Premier and to the Leader of the Opposition in
relation to their respective policies.
Note—
For the purposes of the general election due to
be held on 24 March 2007, the draft statements are to be provided on 9 March
2007.
(4)
The Premier and the Leader of the Opposition may,
within 48 hours after being provided with a draft budget impact statement,
notify the Secretary of the Treasury in writing of their final list of
Treasury costed policies for inclusion in the budget impact
statement.
(5)
The Secretary of the Treasury is to:
(a)
revise the draft budget impact statements in
accordance with any such notification, and
(b)
publicly release both of the final budget impact
statements on the day that is the fifth last day before the State
election.
Note—
For the purposes of the general election due to
be held on 24 March 2007, the final statements are to be released on 19 March
2007.
Part 4Miscellaneous
13Pre-election statement of
uncommitted State funds
The Secretary of the Treasury is to publicly
release, at the same time as the public release of the pre-election
half-yearly budget review, a statement of the amount of uncommitted funds that
are available (within the revised estimates of recurrent and capital
expenditures) to meet any future expenditure commitments for the General
Government Sector for the period to which the review
relates.
14Confidentiality of information
or documents relating to Treasury costing of election
promises
(1)
This section applies to any of the following
information and documents:
(a)
information or documents provided to the
Secretary of the Treasury by the Premier or the Leader of the Opposition (or
on their behalf) for the purposes of a Treasury costing under this
Act,
(b)
information or documents prepared by the Treasury
for the purposes of any such costing.
(2)
The Secretary of the Treasury or other member of
staff of the Treasury must not disclose any such information or document
except:
(a)
in the case of a costing request by the
Premier—to the Premier or to a person authorised by the Premier,
or
(b)
in the case of a costing request by the Leader of
the Opposition—to the Leader of the Opposition or to a person authorised
by the Leader of the Opposition, or
(c)
in any case—to a member of staff of the
Treasury.
Maximum penalty: 50 penalty
units.
(3)
This section does not apply to any information or
document:
(a)
if the information or document relates to a
Treasury costing or costing request that the Secretary of the Treasury is
authorised or required to publicly release by this Act, or
(b)
if the information or document has already been
lawfully published, or
(c)
if the person disclosing the information or
document became aware of the information or obtained the document otherwise
than in the course of a Treasury costing under this
Act.
15Treasury
guidelines
The Secretary of the Treasury may issue
guidelines for the purposes of the making of costing requests and the
preparation of Treasury costings and budget impact
statements.
16Revision of costings and
statements to correct any errors
The Secretary of the Treasury may revise a
Treasury costing or budget impact statement at any time after it is made to
correct any error, and provide or release the revised costing or
statement.
17Regulations
The Governor may make regulations, not
inconsistent with this Act, for or with respect to any matter that by this Act
is required or permitted to be prescribed or that is necessary or convenient
to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to this
Act.
18Consequential repeal of
section 61A of Public Finance and Audit Act
1983 No 152
The Public Finance
and Audit Act 1983 is amended by omitting section
61A.
Historical
notes
Table of amending
instruments
Charter of Budget
Honesty (Election Promises Costing) Act 2006 No 89. Second
reading speech made: Legislative Assembly, 17.10.2006; Legislative Council,
14.11.2006. Assented to 21.11.2006. Date of commencement, assent, sec
2.