Mr ANOULACK CHANTHIVONG (Macquarie Fields) (12:49): I make a contribution to debate on the Parliamentary Budget Officer Amendment Bill 2019. I thank the Member for Keira, the Shadow Treasurer, for introducing this important bill as part of ongoing reform.
The heart of this bill is about the contestability of ideas and an appetite for a reform agenda. Good ideas are based on good information and analysis which should be available to every Member of Parliament—in the Government, in the Opposition and on the crossbenches. With the increasing number of members of the crossbench, they deserve and should be entitled to have the same level of resources as does any Government or Opposition member in order to ensure that their ideas and policies undergo proper and thorough analysis provided by the Parliamentary Budget Officer.
Meaningful debate cannot be held without first putting good policy and ideas through the ringer and being scrutinised and assessed by an independent oversight body that has no vested interest and will provide good practical advice. That allows for good government and the implementation of good policy. Central to this Chamber and our democracy is the idea of contestability. To be competitive one has to have a good product. A good product comes about from being contested; from good information, facts and analysis; and from private discussion with people with different skills. No‑one in this Chamber has all of the necessary skills or a monopoly on good ideas.
Mr Rob Stokes: You have got a lot of sense.
Mr ANOULACK CHANTHIVONG: I note the interjection of the Minister for Planning and Public Spaces and I could not agree more. For once, he is not misleading the House. The contestability of ideas is not in between the pre- and post-election period; it happens throughout the term of the Parliament. Members who have ideas should be able to get assistance and support to ensure their ideas can become even greater ideas.
Let us make ideas great again through the Parliamentary Budget Officer. No more fake news, no more holding up the Daily Liberal in this Parliament. All members of this House should have their ideas contested. If Parliament and this Chamber are not about contesting ideas based on good analysis and facts, why are we here?
The Member for Wyong in his contribution to the debate said that this legislation is about creating a level playing field. Undoubtedly, Government members and ministerial staff have access to bureaucracy which Opposition members and Independents do not have. Surely the party of the free market would want a competitive market in this space.
Surely Government members do not want to be known as free market frauds who speak the language of a free market but do not support a free and competitive market to ensure that each and every agent in that market is able to compete on a fair basis. We do not want an anti-competitive policy cartel in this place. We should ensure that good monopolistic competition is always alive and well in both chambers of this Parliament.
The bill is also about an appetite for reform, which is an ongoing process. We do not stop work after an election; we keep on going all the time. Reform means that we are moving in the right direction to make things better, more competitive and more productive. The statistics show that productivity has been on a decline. Opposing this bill will add to that decline.
For people to be productive they need a reform agenda that will continue to change the way things are done. If we stand still we will fall behind as others walk right past. The purpose of the shadow Treasurer's Parliamentary Budget Officer Amendment Bill is about reform and making changes that will make our community better.
This Parliament cannot fall behind in implementing reforms that have been made in many institutions around the world. I am surprised by the argument of the Member for Ku-ring-gai who said that this bill undermines democracy. If that is so, then democracy is undermined by fiscal institutions like the Parliamentary Budget Office in the United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden, Victoria and even in Canberra. I thought they were good democracies. Investing in institutions is important because they frame the way that things should be done. The Parliament Budget Office is an independent, non-partisan institution that allows all members to contribute to the policy and the public debate space.
As I said in my inaugural speech, one of the great measures of progress in our society is the way in which we debate issues in Parliament and in the public space. We need to have a dialogue that is based on facts, good information and independent advice. We cannot have meaningful dialogue based on fake news and minimal information.
The purpose of the Parliamentary Budget Officer is to allow that institutional framework for all members to have meaningful dialogue with one another and with the public. We should not be afraid of reform. We should not think of the Parliamentary Budget Officer as we think of the character in Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? We should not be afraid of good and proper reform that allows members of Parliament to better engage with the community and to devise ideas that will assist the State in a competitive economy. This bill is about producing greater prosperity for the people of New South Wales. I commend the bill to the House.
