Well, I would only recommend a change to another parliamentary system with a great deal of trepidation. I don't know enough about your system to suggest any specific changes.
For instance, I know you have a parliamentary budget office. In New Zealand we do not have a parliamentary budget office. I know you have a public accounts committee. In New Zealand we do not have a public accounts committee. I understand that you have pre-budget hearings before the finance committee; we do not have that. I think one of my suggestions would be exploring ways of involving other subject committees in pre-budget scrutiny.
One thing I would say very firmly is that budget scrutiny isn't just the job of the finance committee; budget scrutiny is the job of all of the subject committees in regard to the particular sectors they are charged with overseeing.
One of the things we've done in New Zealand, and I think quite successfully, is involve all of the subject committees—and there are 13 of them in our Parliament—in budget consideration and post-budget consideration.
I don't know the extent to which you do that, but I think it's very important to bring the other committees in. It's also important for the finance committee to have an overall stewardship role to look at the macro effects of the budget, and also to supervise.
In some ways this is what happens in New Zealand. Our finance committee supervises the examination of estimates and the post-examination of the budget by the other subject committees. It keeps them up to speed. It allocates the estimates to them; it allocates the financial reviews to them, and it ensures that they do their job. I think that's an important role for a finance committee to take on.