Page 2822 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 24 June 2009
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Mr Stanhope: On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker, is it possible for me to move to have that document inserted in Hansard?
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yes, you may.
Mr Stanhope: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I want to move that the—
MRS DUNNE: You can have it tabled. It is already inserted in Hansard.
Mr Stanhope: No, I want to insert it. I am moving that it be inserted in Hansard.
MRS DUNNE: I have read it out. It is already inserted in Hansard.
Mr Stanhope: I will not take the time of the Assembly, but I would ask Mrs Dunne to agree to its inclusion in the Hansard record.
MRS DUNNE: There is no problem in having it inserted in the Hansard record. I read it out today and I read it out yesterday. If members would like me to table it I will, but I will table it later because it is the only copy I have with me. When I get another copy I will be quite happy to table the document.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you, Mrs Dunne.
MRS DUNNE: What we have here today is a really tetchy Chief Minister. He is in flight here today because he has spent his entire time, again, berating the Auditor-General for her budget. Let us look at what he said. He said over and over again that there is an average 17 per cent increase in her funding. Averages are wonderful things. It is a good way of manipulating statistics. We all know that in 2006 there was a substantial increase in funding to the Auditor-General on a one-off basis so that the Auditor-General could adopt the new accounting standards and auditing standards which have become the national practice. Without that substantial increase in funding she could not have done her job according to the national practice.
Of course, because there was such a substantial—I think 35 per cent—increase that year, it is easy to run up your averages and suddenly say, “She’s got a 17 per cent increase.” But her base funding has not been subjected to a 17 per cent increase. In fact, this year, when most agencies are receiving increases of two, three and four per cent, the Auditor-General’s funding increased by $90,000, which is slightly more than a one per cent increase, which is much less than CPI and considerably less than WPI.
Mr Seselja: And much less than virtually every other agency.
MRS DUNNE: And much less than virtually every other agency in the territory. Mr Hanson made it perfectly clear that when the open and accountable Stanhope government came to power in the ACT the Auditor-General was performing 12 audits a year. In the current financial year she is down to eight, and next year it may be as few as six—but six to seven on her evidence. She is not being funded to do more; she is being funded to an extent where she has to do less.
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