Scrutiny of Standing Appropriations [2024] AUSStaCSBSD 105 (15 May 2024)

• Chapter 3 : Scrutiny of standing appropriations220

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Chapter 3 :
Scrutiny of standing appropriations^[220]

3.1 Standing appropriations enable entities to spend money from the Consolidated Revenue Fund on an ongoing basis. Their significance from an accountability perspective is that, once they have been enacted, the expenditure they involve does not require regular parliamentary approval and therefore escapes parliamentary control. They are not subject to approval through the standard annual appropriations process.

3.2 By allowing the executive government to spend unspecified amounts of money for an indefinite time into the future, provisions which establish standing appropriations may, depending on the circumstances of the legislation, infringe on the committee’s terms of reference relating to the delegation and exercise of legislative power.

3.3 Therefore, the committee has determined that, as part of its standard procedures for reporting on bills, it should draw senators’ attention to bills that establish or amend standing appropriations or establish, amend or continue in existence special accounts.^[221] It will do so under provisions 1(a)(iv) and (v) of its terms of reference, which require the committee to report on whether bills:

(iv) inappropriately delegate legislative powers; or

(v) insufficiently subject the exercise of legislative power to parliamentary scrutiny.^[222]

3.4 The committee draws certain provisions of the Parliamentary Business Resources Legislation Amendment (Review Implementation and Other Measures) Bill 2024 to the attention of senators.^[223]

Senator Dean Smith

Chair

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^[220] This report can be cited as: Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills, Chapter 3: Scrutiny of standing appropriations [2023] AUSStaCSBSD 105.

^[221] The Consolidated Revenue Fund is appropriated for expenditure for the purposes of special accounts by virtue of section 80 of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013.

^[222] For further detail, see Senate Scrutiny of Bills Committee, Fourteenth Report of 2005.

^[223] Items 6 and 7 of Schedule 2 to the bill seek to amend the standing appropriation in section 59 of the Parliamentary Business Resources Act 2017 but not so as to expand the scope of the standing appropriation.

Item 1 in Schedule 3 to the bill seeks to amend subsection 280(3) of the National Anti‑Corruption Commission Act 2022, which contains a standing appropriation for the purposes of making payments of financial assistance to parliamentarians under arrangements prescribed in the regulations so as to expand the scope of the standing appropriation so that it includes payments of financial assistance to former parliamentarians. For further commentary on this item see the entry for the bill in this Scrutiny Digest.