Ms O'CONNOR - How much of the $712.5 million allocated in this year's Budget to roads and bridges is debt-financed, and are you able to break down the components of that funding by source?
Mr FERGUSON - Ms O'Connor, thank you for the question. I am not able to provide a particular breakdown, because that's not how the finances work in relation to individual purchasing decisions of departments. Finances are managed through the Treasury on a whole of Government basis. Balances that are required for borrowings to support the infrastructure, for example, are done on a whole of Government basis - not on a department basis.
Ms O'CONNOR - I would have thought with a quantum that's approaching three quarters of $1 billion, that there might be some clearer line of sight about how much is own-source revenue, commonwealth grants, or debt-funded. I'm a bit surprised that breakdown is not available.
Mr FERGUSON - The Budget Papers already provide a breakdown of Government sources - for example, Australian Government-sourced funding as a contribution toward the state roads and bridges program. But in terms of the borrowings that you've asked for about individual departments, my advice is it doesn't work that way. I will ask the secretary to add to that answer.
Mr EVANS - The only thing I can add is that we don't have that detail in my agency for anything other than borrowings relating to the Tasmanian Development Board, which come directly through my agency and are managed by us. We've got direct line of sight on our borrowings, as the TD Board, but we don't have line of sight on borrowings at the whole of Government level. At a departmental level, no.