Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As I rise tonight, can I say that it is an honour to follow the member for Wentworth in the debate on the Parliamentary Service Amendment (Parliamentary Budget Officer) Bill 2011. As he has so well articulated, it was his idea, dating back to 2009, to call for the establishment of a parliamentary budget office to be modelled on that of the US Congressional Budget Office. For those of us who have had the honour and privilege to visit the United States under any of various schemes—I was honoured to go under their young political leaders scheme, where I witnessed the full gamut of everything that the congress has to offer and was briefed on their budgetary office—you could not get a better model. The model which the US congress operates under has two key ingredients: it is confidential in its service and it is also independent in its service. They are the two key ingredients that we should have in Australia when we set up our Parliamentary Budget Office.

It is a shame that, after the member for Wentworth introduced the idea of a parliamentary budget office, it has taken until now for us to be debating this issue and also that the shadow Treasurer has had to introduce a bill calling for a parliamentary budget office for the Treasurer to follow suit and present us with his bill. The worrying aspect of it all, of course, is that in Wayne's world—

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