Page 5577 - Week 13 - Thursday, 17 November 2011
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right—a bachelor degree. I do not think we would allow that standard to be applied to a doctor or to a nurse or to the chief engineer of the ACT or the chief architect of the ACT. But apparently you can become the Auditor-General with a degree better than a bachelor degree.
We are also told that it was not the traditional interview process; it was more of a fireside chat. That concerns me. The office of the Auditor-General is, in many ways our upper house—the person we send things to be reviewed. Our Auditor-General was discovered by a fireside chat. You have got poor process there. You have an unclear advertisement, and I am sure if people knew you only needed greater than a bachelor degree to become the Auditor-General of the ACT, a whole lot more people would have applied. But that was not clear. That you just need better than a bachelor degree is amazing.
There is also some question about the ability of the selection committee to make the selection. In 2004 when we went searching for an Auditor-General, the gentleman who is currently the Auditor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia was on that selection panel. He was on that selection panel because he had expertise in the field. The selection panel that made this selection was the head of Chief Minister’s, the head of Treasury and another Treasury official. I am not aware of their qualifications in audit process. Remember, the Auditor-General does performance audits, but the statutory responsibility, the overriding responsibility in that regard, is the financial audits.
We have not said, “We need somebody who is capable of doing financial audits.” We were told, “We just need somebody who can think at a higher order.” I am sure we all know people who hold PhDs who think at a higher order. But as you all turn to your favourite quirky PhD holder, I wonder whether you think they would be a good auditor-general because they have a higher order of thinking? I think most of us know people who would not qualify in that regard, and that is the problem.
I have problems with the appointment of an individual who does not have the necessary audit or financial background to the position of Auditor-General. As the letter from the public accounts committee to the Chief Minister said, this is a discourtesy to the proposed nominee that we are having this discussion in this way, but it is brought about by the process that the Chief Minister launched. We need to look at qualifications, because we need to have confidence that the person in the job can fulfil the role. It is not a case of “we might grow into it” or “we’ll be good in year seven or whenever”. It is from the start. You need to be able to do the job.
There is, of course, the question of the nominee in the media. There is the discourtesy to the public accounts committee, again, through flawed process. A letter was dropped into the in-tray of the office of the private member who happens to be the chair of the public accounts committee. Normally all that correspondence goes straight to the committee office. At the same time, quite coincidentally, a press release goes out, and then almost within minutes there is the nominee on the radio.
That puts members under inordinate pressure, because they have to stand up and say, “No, I don’t agree with that appointment,” whether they like the person or not,
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