If I might, the key issue is that Parliament votes specific amounts for specific uses, and while the member's statement about the government needing to live within a budget or an overall budgetary framework is very wise counsel, the government is not free or at its leisure to move the moneys within that framework back and forth between votes. That is the crux of the issue of why, should we decide a need is more urgent, if there are not sufficient funds available within a specific vote, we would need to come back to Parliament through supplementary estimates. But a need such as forest fires or SARS or BSE might cause the actual spending to have to be brought forward.
On June 20th, 2006. See this statement in context.