Page 3263 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 16 August 2011
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Just to end, I note recommendation 41, where PAC recommends the Auditor-General Act be amended to allow the Auditor-General to conduct joint investigations of performance audits with other statutory office-holders. The government’s response was not to agree with this, but particularly in light of the fact that our new Auditor-General was previously another statutory office-holder, I think it would be very interesting to consider this as an ongoing issue. In the interests of looking for a triple bottom line approach for the whole of the issues of the ACT, it is something that we should look at.
I thank the government for its response, and I look forward to ongoing improvement of the Auditor-General Act.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (3.43): It is nice to have the government at last respond to the public accounts committee inquiry into the Auditor-General Act 1996. Ms Le Couteur was spot on the money when she said that perhaps I would not be impressed with the responses, particularly to numbers 24 and 25. These go to the funding of the Auditor-General’s Office and the extent to which the public accounts committee should have input in helping set that budget. The public accounts committee on behalf of the Assembly is the conduit to the audit office. As all in this place would know, I have been, certainly over the last 10 years, probably the largest proponent of extra resources and legislative power to the Auditor-General bar none in this place. It is a shame that the government does not see the wisdom of this. As Ms Le Couteur said, yes, I do have a bill before the Assembly that would allow PAC and this place to have a much greater role in setting the budget for the Auditor-General’s Office.
What we are seeing is the auditor being squeezed by this government. In response to a number of damning reports, you can only guess why the government would be squeezing the budget of the Auditor-General. It is a commonly accepted fact, not just around this country but around the world, that for every dollar you spend on reports by the Auditor-General’s Office, there is a ten-fold return to the community through either savings or greater efficiencies. We are about to have a speech later today from the new Treasurer on the global financial crisis and its potential effects on our budget. Well, if you really want to make the budget effective, one of the real efficiencies you can put in place very quickly is to increase the resources of the Auditor-General’s Office.
It is important, particularly in unicameral parliaments as ours is, that the auditor performs in some ways the role of a house of review—independent, independently funded, controlled by an act and responsible to the parliament and not to the executive are the sorts of safeguards that any reasonable parliament would have in place.
I could speak to many of the other recommendations at this time, but I will not. I am assuming that, when PAC receives this, we might have a discussion about that. I am sure you, Mr Assistant Speaker, would be mightily interested in that. Given that I have already got some legislation to bolster the role of the auditor, I think in response to this that people can expect some more.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
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