Thursday, 6 March 2025

Treasurer’s advances

Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (12:13): (839) My question is for the Treasurer. Traditionally, as a means of meeting urgent costs after a budget is handed down, it was recently reported that Victoria had significantly expanded the purposes for which it uses Treasurer’s advances. While it has been widely publicised that advances have been used to foot infrastructure bills and for the pandemic response, it was tucked away in a recent PAEC paper from last year’s outcomes hearings that the former Treasurer had given Harness Racing Victoria $52.5 million as an advance to help them remain solvent. As the new Treasurer of Victoria, will you commit to giving no more Treasurer’s advances to racing industries and tell them to stand on their own two feet?

Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Treasurer, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Regional Development) (12:13): Thank you, Ms Purcell, for your question. The harness racing industry is a significant contributor to particularly regional Victoria in relation to jobs and the economy. We are working closely with Harness Racing Victoria in relation to their sustainability, and again, similar to my answer to Mr Davis, in relation to racing industry specific questions, you might want to refer them to Minister Carbines. But you have crafted your question in an appropriate way in relation to talking about Treasurer’s advances.

Treasurer’s advances, as you have indicated, are important for responding to emergencies and unexpected events, and it is also often –

Members interjecting.

The PRESIDENT: Order! Ms Purcell wants to hear the answer.

Jaclyn SYMES: It also can be useful when perhaps a Commonwealth matching grants round comes out and you do not want to miss out, for example. They are some of the opportunities. A lot of the increase has been in the way that projects that have been allocated funding – the funding is public, but the contingency of holding back the money and paying on milestones is reported as a Treasurer’s advance, which is where a lot of the increases come from, because we are a government that builds things, so you end up with a lot more reporting.

Members interjecting.

Jaclyn SYMES: In relation to your question about the use of them, I am trying to answer your question, but I am getting several interjections. There is a purpose for Treasurer’s advances, but I have publicly acknowledged that I have concerns about this practice. I am working with the department in relation to some changes, and I will have more to say about that in due course.

Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (12:15): Thank you, Treasurer, for your response. You have somewhat outlined what my supplementary question is about already, but I will ask it anyway so you can further expand. You recently questioned how advances have previously been used when integrity experts criticised their use recently in the media. Can you please advise of your plan for the use of Treasurer’s advances in the future in your new role?

Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Treasurer, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Regional Development) (12:16): I thank Ms Purcell for her supplementary question. All Treasurer’s advances are published in the annual financial report, which is a transparency measure. The report now breaks them up into those two categories that I was explaining, so they are under the headings ‘Treasurer’s advance payments relating to decisions made post budget’, which is predominantly those emerging, unexpected disaster funds and the like, and the other ones are characterised as ‘Contingency releases paid from the advance to the Treasurer’. I am continuing to discuss Treasurer’s advances with the department to ensure that we can build on and improve transparency and accountability.