Page 4284 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 20 November 1990
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we had requested, well in advance, additional material to be supplied to the committee. Not only had the chairman requested that in advance but also, it must be said, last year,s Estimates Committee had put the Executive Government on notice that additional information would be required by the Estimates Committee.
What we got, on the morning of the first day of sittings, was a pile of documents, some two-and-a-half to three inches thick, lobbed on our desks at about 8.30 in the morning with a view to commencing public hearings at 9 o,clock. The committee said, "That will not do", and full credit to the committee for saying that. Let us hope that that will never happen again. It did, in effect, happen the next day with Mr Humphries, material which did not arrive in time and, because of the late hearings the previous day, the committee again said, "This will not do", and delayed its hearings. But it must be said that we noticed an improvement from there on, and I hope that this will never occur in future years.
The important recommendation that is made in the unanimous main report of this committee provides guidelines for the Executive Government in producing information in an appropriate fashion. Also, as Mr Jensen noted in his remarks, the recommendation for a further select committee to be established to give the Government guidance on the form of information and documentation provided by the Government in the budget process would again help to save future time of this Assembly in producing public accounts information in a form that is accessible and understandable and provides a simple basis of comparison.
It is obviously very difficult when different agencies present information in a different fashion. A simple standardised format of additional detailed information would go far, I think, in reducing the time that Ministers and officials will spend before future estimates committees, and will simplify the process of public accountability and scrutiny of government decisions, because at the end of the day the Estimates Committee is not there for the benefit of members of the government or opposition who serve on it or for this Assembly. At the end of the day it is there for the public, and the information that we are suggesting should be made available is required so that it can be made simply available to members of the public.
Accountability has been stressed in the remarks in the chamber this evening and in the report, and it was a matter of grave concern to the committee, as it unanimously noted, that the committee was forced to the view that a senior public servant had misled it when giving evidence. The senior public servant was identified in the Canberra Times after the publication of this report as Mr Willmot of the Ministry for Health, Education and the Arts.
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