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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 03 Hansard (Tuesday, 9 March 2004) . . Page.. 873 ..

The Auditor-General’s report Effectiveness of Annual Reporting has several recommendations about annual reporting for the government. One of these has clearly been picked up in the bill. The amendment that I will circulate picks up on another recommendation from the Auditor-General’s report.

I would like to speak about the Assembly’s experiences with annual reports. The committees of this Assembly are kept busy every year after annual reports are tabled. The Auditor-General found in his report that in 10 reports presented by standing committees to the Assembly in 2000 and 2001 there were 116 recommendations arising from their consideration on the annual reports. This year, again, the committees had many recommendations that related directly to annual reports of the relevant agencies. These recommendations relate to the agencies’ compliance with the guidelines to annual reporting, to the general quality and presentation of information in reports and to specific issues in reporting that relate to each agency. These concerns continually arise each year and point to serious concerns about compliance with the Chief Minister’s directions.

Indeed, the Auditor-General’s report also found that the Chief Minister’s directions are not fully effective and are not being administered effectively. The Auditor-General made several recommendations about directions, and I hope that many of the directions that the government has agreed to are reflected in this year’s version.

The Auditor-General made five specific recommendations about legislative changes to the annual reports act. The government did not agree to three of the recommendations, one was agreed to in principle and the other, which is reflected in the legislation we are now debating, was totally agreed to. The suggestion to amend the date by which all reports are to be made public seems a reasonable one, and I am happy to support this to ensure that the presentation of annual reports is not affected in election years.

The government has also agreed to include in the Chief Minister’s directions a requirement that reports presented to the minister must include audited financial statements. I understand that this will be more achievable with a change in presentation date.

The Auditor-General also recommended that the act provide for whole-of-government reporting. While the government did not agree to this, I think there is some merit in the concept. While there may be a risk of duplicating some elements of agency reports, there are whole-of-government initiatives and policies, such as the Canberra plan, that would be interesting.

The Auditor-General also recommended that the Standing Committee on Public Accounts should have responsibility for approving the directions. The government did not agree to this recommendation. However, I have drafted an amendment that provides for the Standing Committee on Public Accounts to be consulted about the annual report directions.

Consideration of this legislation has also brought about discussion of the role of the legislature, executive government and the chief executive. This is an interesting discussion that really should be part of a much larger one.

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