Page 1832 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 8 June 2016

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It was a wideranging piece of advice to members about how they needed to comport themselves to maintain the order of this place. I think the wideranging piece of advice, as I am wont to give from time to time, whether members like it or not—and it is ignored often by most people in this place—is simply that—wideranging advice—and it certainly complies with the standing orders.

Mr Coe interjecting—

MADAM SPEAKER: You need to be careful, Mr Coe. You might want to be here tomorrow.

Auditor-General Act—2016 strategic review

Paper and statement by Speaker

MADAM SPEAKER: For the information of members, I present the following paper:

Auditor-General Act, pursuant to subsection 29(3)—2016 Strategic review of the ACT Auditor-General, dated 26 May 2016, prepared by Des Pearson AO.

This review was undertaken in accordance with division 5.1 of the Auditor-General Act 1996 which requires that it be undertaken once in each term of the Assembly. On this occasion it was conducted by Mr Des Pearson AO, a former Auditor-General in Victoria and Western Australia. Mr Pearson also has worked as a senior executive in the commonwealth, Northern Territory and ACT public sectors. In addition, he has had experience undertaking a range of governance, accountability and performance reporting consultancies including external reviews of audit offices and peer reviews of individual audits and reports.

Although a previous strategic review was conducted in 2010, this is the first time since the Auditor-General was made an officer of the Legislative Assembly that the engagement of the reviewer was the responsibility of the Speaker.

I acknowledge with thanks the administrative support received in this exercise from the Office of the Legislative Assembly, in particular the Director, Communications and Governance, Mr David Skinner. We were sailing largely in uncharted waters and Mr Skinner’s pragmatic approach was invaluable in achieving what I regard as a very good outcome.

I am pleased we have a report that, on the whole, presents a very positive picture of the Auditor-General’s Office and its operations, and I draw to members’ attention some of the key points. The Audit Office is efficient and effective in achieving its legislative objectives. The legislative mandate is adequately supported by the works of the Audit Office.

With the Auditor-General being an officer of the Legislative Assembly, there is a need to clarify the manner in which the Speaker is supported administratively, including in a budgetary sense. Consideration should be given to amending the


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