Hon House Chair, hon members, in today's debate we are charting new ground created by the ANC, continuing along the road of transforming our budget and finance processes to make them more transparent, efficient and effective.
The ANC also acknowledges the teething challenges associated with the implementation of the Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act, Act No 9 of 2009, which will improve with time. The Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement and adjustments delivered six months into the financial year serve as a barometer of the road travelled since the tabling of the main Budget.
It affords lawmakers the opportunity to prepare for the next year and the two outer financial years. This is an opportunity for Parliament to amend the fiscal framework of the 2011-12 budgets if it so wishes. It also takes place within the context of the 12 agreed outcomes. Also crucial to this Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement is the centrality of the people; in other words, the extent to which the Budget addresses the needs of the majority of the people who are poor. It also takes place in the context of the performance agreement signed between the President and the executive. This signals a real paradigm shift in terms of how government business has always been conducted.
This MTBPS spells out clear, measurable objectives as evidenced in the public hearings by different stakeholders such as the Human Sciences Research Council, that agreed "in the challenge of finding the right balances in the economic and development priorities", that unemployment become the top priority; that the cities be recognised as engines of growth requiring more investment in infrastructure to address bottlenecks and backlogs; and, finally, that due attention be given to the rural development and post-school employment opportunities for the youth.
Going forward, the downward revision of agriculture and health spending over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF ... [Interjections.]