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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 03 Hansard (Tuesday, 9 March 2004) . . Page.. 874 ..

My amendment to refer the annual report directions to the Public Accounts Committee would allow the Assembly to have a legislated role for input to the annual report directions, where a lot of the detail is about what should appear in the annual reports. If this amendment is approved by the Assembly, it will send a strong message to government agencies about our interest in annual reports and what gets reported.

My amendment makes it clear that the Public Accounts Committee will make recommendations, and that the minister can accept these or provide an explanation about why not. This would provide a clear process for the Assembly to have input into the annual reports process. It would also provide a process that is accountable.

MRS CROSS (10.58): Mr Speaker, annual reporting is the cornerstone upon which accountable and transparent government is built. Annual reporting, at least when the rules of annual reporting are appropriate and properly enforced, acts like a magnifying glass on government. It ensures that agencies and departments let the public know how their money is being spent. The mechanism of annual reporting is crucial to ensuring that the executive arm of government is held accountable, and is a fundamental element in ensuring that the executive arm of government is transparent.

Here in the ACT the standard of annual reporting has not been high. Whilst this varies between departments and agencies, the overall standards of annual reports are not at the high levels they should be. According to the Auditor-General, annual reports do not reach the high levels expected because “The Chief Minister’s annual reports directions are not fully effective” and that these “directions are not being administered effectively”. This is a problem which I had hoped these bills would have addressed.

Whilst I accept that this bill addresses some of the concerns raised by the Auditor-General and implements some of his recommendations, it fails to address some of the more complex recommendations. Whilst I do not believe that this bill is as complete as it should be, I will be supporting it as it will improve the very important accountability mechanism of annual reporting. I will be supporting both Ms Tucker’s and Mr Smyth’s amendments.

MRS DUNNE (10.59): Mr Speaker, I rise to give general support for this bill because it is important that we have clear guidelines and a clear understanding of what annual reports should entail. As other speakers have said, annual reporting is not an easy process. However, I think the experiences of the standing committees that have reviewed annual reports in this place in the past couple of years show that it could be easier if, first of all, better guidelines were implemented more rigorously.

The Planning and Environment Committee, of which I am chairman, reviewed the annual reports for this year of Urban Services and its related agencies and the first recommendation we had to make was that the recommendations we made the previous year should be implemented. I think that is a great disappointment and a great shame, and it shows that there is not enough rigour in the annual reporting process.

I think many of the issues that have been raised over the years by the Auditor-General have not been taken up. At this stage we do not see in this territory a warts and all reporting of achievements as well as things that have gone wrong. Until we have that

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