Page 1917 - Week 06 - Thursday, 9 June 2016
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(iii) consider and make recommendations on any other matters raised in the report the committee considers relevant according to its terms of reference; and
(b) the Standing Committee on Public Accounts to:
(i) consider and make recommendations regarding the establishment of a term of appointment for the ACT Auditor-General to be included in the Auditor-General Act 1996; and
(ii) consider and make recommendations on any other matters raised in the report the committee considers relevant according to its terms of reference; and
(2) the committees report to the Assembly by the last sitting day in August 2016.
As I foreshadowed yesterday when I tabled the Strategic review of the ACT Auditor-General by Des Pearson AO, I have moved this motion today because there are matters raised by the strategic reviewer that need to be scrutinised by committees of this Assembly. The Standing Committee on Administration and Procedure should address the matters raised in relation to the relevance and adequacy of the provisions of the Legislative Assembly (Office of the Legislative Assembly) Act 2012 to consider and make recommendations about the capacity of the Legislative Assembly to provide administrative support to the Speaker in the performance of the Speaker’s role in relation to independent officers of the Legislative Assembly.
As members would recall, I raised this as an issue during annual reports hearings last year because, while I am very supportive of the creation of officers of the Legislative Assembly, we have been in uncharted waters. My office and I have been creating new procedures as we go along, with the assistance of the Clerk’s office and particularly with the assistance of David Skinner. But that has been an informal arrangement and I want, while I am still the Speaker, to create a more formal arrangement for that to continue to happen. I do not want to leave the Speaker’s post without having created sufficient form and practice for my successors to be able to carry out this job without having to reinvent the wheel.
These are important matters. While I am concerned that perhaps it is not entirely appropriate for the Office of the Legislative Assembly to provide advice to me about my relationship with other officers of the Legislative Assembly, I think that there is no other practical solution. I think the advice and assistance that I have received have been of the highest and most exemplary form.
I was very concerned about the processes which were left essentially to the Speaker and to the Speaker’s own personal staff to deal with. I think that is not appropriate. For instance, today I shall be signing a service agreement in relation to the Auditor-General for the audit of the Auditor-General. I think it would be entirely inappropriate for that work to be done by somebody who was not a public servant.
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