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This is a Bill, not an Act. For current law, see the Acts databases.
Queensland
Charter of Budget Honesty Bill
2009
Queensland
Charter of Budget Honesty Bill 2009
Contents
Page
1 Short title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2 The Charter of Budget Honesty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Schedule Charter of Budget Honesty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Part 1 Preliminary
1 Purpose of Charter of Budget Honesty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2 Definitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Part 2 Pre-election economic and fiscal outlook report
3 Release of pre-election economic and fiscal outlook report. . . . . 6
4 Purpose of pre-election economic and fiscal outlook report . . . . 6
5 Contents of pre-election report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6 Treasurer to provide information to help prepare pre-election
report ........................................ 7
7 Statements by Treasurer and under-Treasurer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
8 State government agencies to provide information to help
prepare pre-election report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Part 3 Cost of election commitments
9 Requests for costing of election commitments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
10 Withdrawal of request for costing of election commitments . . . . . 9
11 How policy costings are prepared . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
12 Public release of policy costing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
13 State government agencies to provide information to help
prepare policy costing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2009
A Bill
for
An Act to provide for a Charter of Budget Honesty
Charter of Budget Honesty Bill 2009
[s 1]
The Parliament of Queensland enacts-- 1
1 Short title 2
This Act may be cited as the Charter of Budget Honesty Act 3
2009. 4
2 The Charter of Budget Honesty 5
(1) The Charter of Budget Honesty is set out in the schedule. 6
(2) Nothing in the charter creates rights or duties that are 7
enforceable in judicial or other proceedings. 8
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Charter of Budget Honesty Bill 2009
Schedule
Schedule Charter of Budget Honesty 1
section 2 2
Part 1 Preliminary 3
1 Purpose of Charter of Budget Honesty 4
(1) The Charter of Budget Honesty provides a framework for the 5
conduct of government fiscal policy. 6
(2) The purpose of the charter is to improve fiscal policy 7
outcomes by facilitating public scrutiny of fiscal policy and 8
performance. 9
2 Definitions 10
In this charter-- 11
caretaker period, for a general election, means the period 12
starting with the issue of the writ for the election and ending at 13
the close of the poll on the polling day for the election. 14
general election means a general election of the members of 15
the Legislative Assembly. 16
general government sector, of the State, means the 17
institutional sector comprising all government units and 18
non-profit institutions controlled and mainly financed by 19
government, as defined in Australian Accounting Standard 20
AASB 1049. 21
Editor's note-- 22
The standard is available on the Australian Accounting Standards Board 23
website at . 24
Leader of the Opposition means the Leader of the Opposition 25
in the Legislative Assembly. 26
pre-election report see section 4. 27
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Charter of Budget Honesty Bill 2009
Schedule
State government agency means a department or other entity 1
that is part of the general government sector of the State. 2
Treasurer means the Minister who administers the Act. 3
treasury department means the department in which the Act 4
is administered. 5
under-Treasurer means the chief executive of the treasury 6
department. 7
Part 2 Pre-election economic and 8
fiscal outlook report 9
3 Release of pre-election economic and fiscal outlook 10
report 11
The under-Treasurer is to publicly release a pre-election 12
economic and fiscal outlook report within 15 days after the 13
issue of the writ for a general election. 14
Note-- 15
A pre-election economic and fiscal outlook report is publicly released if 16
it is available on the treasury department website at 17
or published in the gazette. 18
4 Purpose of pre-election economic and fiscal outlook 19
report 20
The purpose of the pre-election economic and fiscal outlook 21
report (the pre-election report) is to provide up-to-date 22
information on the economic and fiscal outlook for the State. 23
5 Contents of pre-election report 24
(1) A pre-election report is to include the following-- 25
(a) up-to-date fiscal estimates for the general government 26
sector of the State for the current financial year and the 27
following 3 financial years; 28
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Charter of Budget Honesty Bill 2009
Schedule
(b) the economic and other assumptions for the current 1
financial year and the following 3 financial years that 2
have been used in preparing the fiscal estimates; 3
(c) discussion as to the sensitivity of the fiscal estimates to 4
changes in the economic and other assumptions; 5
(d) an up-to-date statement of the risks, quantified to the 6
extent practicable, that may affect the fiscal outlook, 7
including-- 8
(i) contingent liabilities; and 9
(ii) publicly announced government commitments that 10
are not yet included in the fiscal estimates 11
mentioned in paragraph (a). 12
(2) The information in the pre-election report is to take into 13
account, to the fullest extent possible, all government 14
decisions and other circumstances that-- 15
(a) may materially affect the economic and fiscal outlook; 16
and 17
(b) were made, or were in existence, before the issue of the 18
writ for the general election. 19
(3) Subsection (4) applies if information required to be included 20
in the pre-election report is unchanged from information 21
stated in an earlier economic and fiscal outlook report. 22
(4) The pre-election report may summarise the information and 23
state that it is unchanged from the information stated in the 24
earlier report. 25
(5) The under-Treasurer is not required to include information in 26
the pre-election report if the under-Treasurer considers it is 27
confidential commercial information. 28
6 Treasurer to provide information to help prepare 29
pre-election report 30
To help the treasury department prepare a pre-election report, 31
the Treasurer is to disclose to the under-Treasurer details of 32
any government decision or other information of which the 33
Treasurer is aware-- 34
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Charter of Budget Honesty Bill 2009
Schedule
(a) that has, or could have, material fiscal or economic 1
implications; and 2
(b) that the under-Treasurer could not reasonably be 3
expected to be aware. 4
7 Statements by Treasurer and under-Treasurer 5
A pre-election report is to contain the following-- 6
(a) a statement, signed by the Treasurer, that the Treasurer 7
has disclosed to the under-Treasurer the details 8
mentioned in section 6; 9
(b) a statement, signed by the under-Treasurer, that to the 10
extent practicable the information in the report-- 11
(i) reflects the best professional judgment of officers 12
of the treasury department; and 13
(ii) takes into account all economic and financial 14
information available to the treasury department; 15
and 16
(iii) incorporates the fiscal implications of government 17
decisions or other information disclosed by the 18
Treasurer. 19
8 State government agencies to provide information to help 20
prepare pre-election report 21
(1) The under-Treasurer may ask a State government agency to 22
provide information to help the under-Treasurer prepare a 23
pre-election report. 24
(2) The State government agency is to comply with a request in 25
time to allow the information to be taken into account in the 26
preparation of the pre-election report, unless-- 27
(a) it is not practicable to comply with the request; or 28
(b) complying with the request would contravene a law of 29
the Commonwealth or a State. 30
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Charter of Budget Honesty Bill 2009
Schedule
Part 3 Cost of election commitments 1
9 Requests for costing of election commitments 2
(1) During the caretaker period for a general election-- 3
(a) the Premier may ask the under-Treasurer to prepare 4
costings of publicly announced government policies; 5
and 6
(b) the Leader of the Opposition may ask the 7
under-Treasurer to prepare costings of publicly 8
announced Opposition policies. 9
(2) A request under subsection (1)(a) or (b) must-- 10
(a) be in writing; and 11
(b) state the policy to be costed, giving relevant details, 12
including assumptions to be used in costing the policy; 13
and 14
(c) state the purpose or the intention of the policy. 15
(3) The Premier may not ask the under-Treasurer to cost policies 16
of the Opposition. 17
(4) The Leader of the Opposition may not ask the under-Treasurer 18
to cost policies of the government. 19
(5) The under-Treasurer is not obliged or authorised to make any 20
comment on the rationale or efficacy of policies provided for 21
costing. 22
10 Withdrawal of request for costing of election 23
commitments 24
(1) The Premier may at any time, by notice in writing to the 25
under-Treasurer, withdraw a request made under section 26
9(1)(a). 27
(2) The Leader of the Opposition may at any time, by notice in 28
writing to the under-Treasurer, withdraw a request made 29
under section 9(1)(b). 30
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Charter of Budget Honesty Bill 2009
Schedule
11 How policy costings are prepared 1
(1) The under-Treasurer may issue written guidelines 2
recommending approaches or methods to be used in the 3
preparation of policy costings. 4
(2) If the under-Treasurer needs more information to cost a 5
policy, the under-Treasurer may, in writing, ask the following 6
for the information-- 7
(a) for a government policy--the Premier; 8
(b) for an opposition policy--the Leader of the Opposition. 9
12 Public release of policy costing 10
(1) The under-Treasurer is to publicly release a costing of a policy 11
on the earlier of the following-- 12
(a) as soon as practicable after the policy costing has been 13
prepared; 14
(b) at least 2 days before polling day for the election. 15
(2) The policy costing released by the under-Treasurer is to 16
include the information provided to the under-Treasurer at the 17
time the request for costing was made. 18
(3) Subsection (4) applies if the under-Treasurer does not have 19
sufficient information, or has not had sufficient time, to 20
prepare and release a policy costing at least 2 days before the 21
polling day for the election. 22
(4) The under-Treasurer is to publicly release, at least 2 days 23
before polling day for the election, a statement about the 24
reason the policy costing has not been prepared or released. 25
(5) The under-Treasurer is not obliged or authorised to take any 26
further action in relation to a policy costing for an election on 27
or after the day that is 2 days before polling day for the 28
election. 29
(6) Subsection (1) does not apply if the request for the policy 30
costing has been withdrawn under section 10. 31
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Charter of Budget Honesty Bill 2009
Schedule
Note-- 1
For subsections (1) and (4), a costing or statement is publicly released if 2
it is available on the treasury department website at 3
or published in the gazette. 4
(7) The under-Treasurer does not breach the Financial 5
Accountability Act 2009, section 89 by complying with this 6
section. 7
13 State government agencies to provide information to help 8
prepare policy costing 9
(1) The under-Treasurer may ask a State government agency to 10
provide information to help the under-Treasurer prepare a 11
policy costing. 12
(2) The State government agency is to comply with the request in 13
time to allow the information to be taken into account in the 14
preparation of the policy costing, unless-- 15
(a) it is not practicable to comply; or 16
(b) complying with the request would contravene a law of 17
the Commonwealth or a State. 18
© State of Queensland 2009
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