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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 1 Hansard (13 February) . . Page.. 8 ..

MR QUINLAN (continuing):

I move:

It was quite an interesting exercise. It is unfortunate that there was not more time to cover this area. We need to revisit the review of estimates process we have with draft budgets and the select committee on budget parameters. I do not think sufficient time is allocated to the estimates process, and it ought to be simplified.

I will touch on a few of the findings. We looked at the Chief Minister's report and we found that there are internal audit committees within the administration. In the 12 months from July 1999 to June 2000 the internal audit committee in the Chief Minister's Department met once. In a year when audit was the flavour of the times and when there were problems with accountability within the administration, we had an audit committee that met only once. That is quite an eloquent statistic. Obviously the committee has recommended that that situation be changed.

We looked at the use of consultants and contractors by government and expressed concern in this report that the administration is losing its corporate memory and its operational capacity by virtue of heavy reliance on consultants who come and go and who take away with them some of the benefits of the experience and exposure that might best be retained within the administration itself. I might relate an anecdote. During the hearings, we had a discussion about the turf at Bruce Stadium. We asked whether it was too hard or not? The immediate response was: "We have a consultant looking at it." I think it takes us to the extreme when we have a consultant to tell us whether the surface at Bruce Stadium is too hard.

We expressed some concern-concern that has been underscored by revelations today-in relation to the two planning authorities that exist in the territory. Our focus was on Brindabella Business Park, where substantial commercial rental space is being constructed-sufficient space to have an impact on the total market and the overall planning of the territory, but we have absolutely no control. Today we see other activity relevant to Commonwealth planning and disposable land and the impact upon both the residential and commercial markets.

We looked further at the airport. We believe that the airport should develop a long-term plan to which they and the government are committed, so that the various stakeholders at the airport know where their future lies and what the likely long-term tenure is to be. General aviation at the airport seems to be the poor cousin and is gradually being shoved further and further into a corner, with no assurance that there is a future for general aviation there. Therefore, that business sector needs a little bit more assurance from the government.

We recommended that the government revisit recommendations that our committee made in its report on the implementation of service purchasing arrangements in the ACT, because quite clearly there is still a paucity of information being provided on what the government wants from its NGOs and the purchaser/provider implementation process. A promise of information was made initially in the government's strategy for the implementation of purchaser/provider, but its has been ignored and I think was later repudiated by government in its response to the report-a very curious situation.

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