Help to Buy Bill 2023 [no 2] - Commentary on Ministerial Responses [2024] AUSStaCSBSD 242 (27 November 2024)

• Help to Buy Bill 2023 [No. 2]242
• Standing appropriation243
• Minister for Housing’s response248
• Committee comment

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Help to Buy Bill 2023 [No. 2]^[242]

Purpose	The bill seeks to establish a shared equity program, overseen by Housing Australia, which would make contributions, on behalf of the Commonwealth, for individuals in the purchase of residential property in participating States and Territories. The bill also provides provisions to oversee Housing Australia’s interaction with the Help to Buy program in situations where States or Territories remove themselves from the program.
Portfolio	Treasury
Introduced	House of Representatives on 8 October 2024
Bill status	Passed the Senate on 26 November 2024

Standing appropriation^[243]

2.14 This bill seeks to provide for Help to Buy arrangements, relating to a residential property that Housing Australia enters into on behalf of the Commonwealth.^[244] As part of the arrangement, Housing Australia would make contributions to part of the cost of the individual or the individuals acquiring the property and would be entitled to a return on that contribution.^[245] The bill provides that amounts payable by the Commonwealth are to be paid out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund which would be appropriated accordingly.^[246] As this appropriation would cover amounts payable by the Commonwealth for funding Help to Buy arrangements, this appropriation likely represents a significant amount of Commonwealth expenditure, which once established as a standing appropriation will be administrated without parliamentary oversight.

2.15 In Scrutiny Digest 14 of 2024, the committee requested the minister’s advice as to what mechanisms are in place to report to the Parliament on any expenditure authorised by the standing appropriation.^[247]

Minister for Housing’s response^[248]

2.16 The minister advised that amounts spent under the new special appropriation will be reported in Budget Paper 4. The minister also advised that resourcing and budget estimates for the program will be included in the Portfolio Budget Statements and the Portfolio Additional Estimates Statements. Finally, the minister advised that actual transactions and balances will appear in the Treasury Annual Reports after the program has commenced.

Committee comment

2.17 The committee thanks the minister for this response and acknowledges the existing mechanisms in place to ensure reporting of expenditure to Parliament. However, the committee notes that the information provided in the Budget Papers and Portfolio Budget Statements relate to total expenditure under specified Acts, rather than in relation to each specific appropriation, making it difficult to identify each measure being funded. The committee also notes that while the information relating to expenditure under a standing appropriation is available to the Parliament, it is distributed across a range of sources that are not readily comprehensible.^[249]

2.18 In light of this bill having passed both houses of Parliament, the committee concludes its examination of this matter and makes no further comment.

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^[242] This entry can be cited as: Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills, Help to Buy Bill 2023 [No. 2], Scrutiny Digest 15 of 2024; [2024] AUSStaCSBSD 242.

^[243] Subclause 27. The committee draws senators’ attention to this provision pursuant to Senate standing order 24(1)(a)(v).

^[244] Subclause 6(1).

^[245] Subclause 7(1)

^[246] Subclause 27(4).

^[247] Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills, Scrutiny Digest 14 of 2024 (20 November 2024) pp. 11–12.

^[248] The minister responded to the committee’s comments in a letter dated 26 November 2024. A copy of the letter is available on the committee’s webpage (see correspondence relating to Scrutiny Digest 15 of 2024).

^[249] In relation to this matter, the committee notes as an example of a more accessible manner of publishing this information the information contained in reports relating to Canadian standing appropriations, which includes more comprehensive figures and statutory forecasts for each program under a department, see: 2024–25 Estimates - Canada.ca and 2024–25 Statutory Forecasts - Canada.ca.