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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (2 December) . . Page.. 4236 ..

MR HIRD (continuing):

I commend the report to the parliament. In doing so I would like to make one more observation. It is very obvious from this report that the Assembly's finances are in a much healthier state than they were three years ago. The days of living on a credit card are long gone.

Ms McRae: Ask Mrs Kennett.

MR HIRD: Mr Speaker, I had a little bet with my colleague, Mrs Littlewood. She just lost; I won. I bet her that I would get an interjection. I am delighted that I have such a rapport with those opposite. When I was brought up, like you, Mr Speaker, I was taught good manners, and I do not normally interject when other people do not.

I think it is a credit not just to the Government but to the public servants that we are not living on a credit card. We are actually moving forward. It looks to me, from some of the activities of the Government, that in 1998 we will be looking to a very fast train and our international airport to give us some stability and to help us with the problems we have, in particular with jobs for our youth. I commend the report to the house.

MR MOORE (10.52): Mr Speaker, no doubt Mr Hird, like you, was brought up with good manners. The question is: What has happened since then? I am going to address some specific issues in the report of the Estimates Committee, rather than reiterate the general comments that Ms McRae made, with one particular exception, and that is that once again we have a unanimous report of an Assembly committee. I think that reflects a great deal of credit on the chair, who worked particularly hard to ensure that it would be the case, and on members of the committee who were prepared to compromise in order to ensure a unanimous view.

Recommendation 6 recommends that consideration should be given to what provision should be made in the budget to enable the Auditor-General to undertake audits in the area of lease administration. An examination of a series of specific leases by the Auditor-General identified a $3.8m loss to the Territory in revenue forgone. This followed people in the community identifying particulars of leases and ensuring that the Auditor-General understood their concerns about those particular leases. It is entirely appropriate that the Auditor-General monitor this area, because large sums of money are involved in the decisions that are made in this area. I would like to emphasise to the Government that it is particularly important that the Auditor-General be able to examine those leases.

Recommendation 8 recommends that the role of the Community Advocate be reviewed by the Government in the next Assembly and that it report to the Assembly on the possibility of the Community Advocate reporting to an Assembly standing committee as well as to the Minister. The role played by the Community Advocate is primarily to protect disempowered people within our community, particularly young people and the disabled. Where the Community Advocate is of the belief that action should be taken which the Minister ignores, he or she should have some outlet such as an Assembly committee to ensure an appropriate sense of justice. That is the role that the Community Advocate is charged with.

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