Page 2981 - Week 10 - Thursday, 15 September 1994
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Mr De Domenico: Most of it was unanimous, because there was no dissenting report.
MR HUMPHRIES: Indeed, as Mr De Domenico points out, most of it was unanimous. Even Mr Berry, who came down and argued for changes in the committee report - at the eleventh hour in the case of certain parts of the committee's report - and generally got those changes, in the end did not submit a dissenting report; nor did Ms Ellis; nor did Mrs Grassby. In fact, Mr Berry dealt with his objection to the tenor of the report at the end of the day by simply moving dissent from the whole report, even though he actually contributed to changing some of the recommendations in a way which he purported to the committee were satisfactory to him.
Madam Speaker, the thing which I think is most bizarre about this process and which is the purpose of my amendment before the chamber today is that what we are doing in this process is establishing a smaller conventional kind of committee for estimates mark 2 - a committee of five members. The object of this committee, as per the motion before the house, is to report on the performance outcomes of ACT government agencies for the year ending 1993-94, having regard to information including agency financial statements and annual reports. I would have thought, Madam Speaker, that that is the work of the Assembly's Standing Committee on Public Accounts. Look at its terms of reference. Its terms of reference are:
(a) examine:
(i) the accounts of the receipts and expenditure of the Australian Capital Territory;
(ii) the financial affairs of authorities of the Australian Capital Territory;
... ... ...
Other things are included. I can understand why we have a separate estimates process to look at outcomes. We have a different structure for that process. The new committee will consist of only five members, and in those circumstances it is obviously a different process to the Estimates Committee process where everybody got involved ,until now. But if we are now going to pare that back to five selected people - five privileged people who have the chance to formulate a report on the performance of the Government of the Territory - then, of course, we have a process which is exactly the same as what the Standing Committee on Public Accounts does.
Madam Speaker, it seems to me that, if we are going to do the work of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, it ought to go to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts and not elsewhere. I, therefore, have moved this amendment before the Assembly to have the Standing Committee on Public Accounts do its job. That is the job of that committee. If the members opposite do not believe that the Standing Committee on Public Accounts is capable of inquiring into these sorts of matters they should have,
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