Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for that response which is completely understandable. I would now like to turn to the issue of annual appropriations for depreciation, particularly of information technology expenditures. Could the minister confirm that, under the accrual budgeting mechanism, agencies are provided with annual appropriations to cover depreciation expenses of information technology? In addition, could he confirm whether they are separately allocated money to upgrade their IT and other assets, but particularly their information technology assets? Could the minister also confirm what programs the Department of Finance and Administration has in place across the government to ensure that there is no double-dipping—that is, that departments and agencies are not receiving funds for depreciation which are meant to, over the long term, deal with issues of replacing equipment on a rolling basis as opposed to major upgrades? What mechanisms are in place to ensure that there is no double-dipping? Can the department provide the total amount of actual depreciation expenses for each year since 2000 funded through the price of outputs appropriations and other appropriations, including through additional estimates? The last part, clearly, the minister will need to take on notice. Perhaps he may have some information on the earlier parts of the question, or he may wish to take it all on notice.

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