Page 4923 - Week 16 - Tuesday, 26 November 1991
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We are concerned that there have not been sufficient funds, on the Auditor's claim, to complete those studies that we mentioned yesterday in the house. Clearly, there may well be a serious setback for any government which defers the funds to allow any such study and finds, to its peril, that there has been some impropriety or some loss to revenue within the areas for which the Auditor-General was not funded.
At a time when we still have not recovered a million dollars from the Rugby League, it seems strange that we cannot fund the Auditor-General to examine the very issue of the decision to make that agreement with the Bruce Stadium - a decision which, surely, must be open to scrutiny as soon as possible. The Auditor-General would be well placed, in our view, to commence an inquiry into that decision making process.
We in the Rally believe that the Government has every interest in taming the present Auditor-General, who has displayed an astounding flair for independence and a very close eye for detail. I believe that the Labor Party perceives an antipathetic figure simply because it was the Alliance Government that appointed the Auditor-General. It is unfortunate that that has occurred. The Auditor-General made critical comments during the period of the Alliance Government about matters under the control of Ministers, and I believe that he effectively discharged the independence required of him. I think there is something less than candid in the Government's comment that it cannot find the funds to adequately meet the Auditor's requirements.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (5.50): As a couple of members have pointed out, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, there are reports before the Public Accounts Committee which canvass a great deal of the issues that members have raised in the debate on this division of the Appropriation Bill. I do not propose either to pre-empt the Public Accounts Committee's reports or to go over ground that we have been over before.
I would like to point out, though, that the Government, of course, totally supports the independence of the Auditor-General. I resent any imputation from other members that that is not the case. It has always been quite clear to me that the Auditor-General is, and must be, totally independent, and, in fact, has been. I can find no evidence whatsoever that that has ever been other than the case.
What is the case is that the Auditor-General has some discretion in the way in which he spends money on efficiency audits. The Auditor-General has made decisions, which were his to make, about which of those efficiency audits he would carry out and which he would have to defer for budgetary reasons. That is regrettable. We would all like to have everything fully audited and all efficiency
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