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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 03 Hansard (Tuesday, 9 March 2004) . . Page.. 875 ..

reporting on things that have gone wrong, we will never have a proper reporting process which is truly accountable to the people of the ACT.

The Planning and Environment Committee has also recommended that new chief ministerial guidelines on annual reports should be clear and that they refer to agencies and not just lead departments. Agencies that were questioned by the Planning and Environment Committee about their lack of compliance with the guidelines said, “We don’t have to do that because the guidelines do not refer to us.” In a modern government a lot of activity is carried on by agencies which are one removed from departments, which are a little to the side of departments, and which often carry out commercial activities. It is imperative, Mr Speaker, that those guidelines apply equally to agencies of this sort.

I hope that as a result of the passing of this legislation we will see better and higher quality accountability in the next round of annual reports.

MR STANHOPE (Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for Environment and Minister for Community Affairs) (11.02), in reply: This bill repeals and replaces the Annual Reports (Government Agencies) Act of 1995 with a redrafted act that implements a government commitment to amend the provisions on presentation and tabling of annual reports of ACT government agencies. The bill responds to an Auditor-General’s report recommending a clear date by which reports must be provided to the Assembly. This replaces the arrangements in the current act that provide for a presentation date 10 weeks after the end of the reporting period and then tabling within six sitting days. Annual reports are generally tabled during the late September sitting week each year. However, as the audit points out, provision of reports to members and the public depends on sitting timetables rather than occurring on a set date.

The single date approach recommended by the Auditor-General also supports a change that will be made to the annual report directions for 2003-2004 to mandate inclusion of audited financial and performance statements in annual reports. The directions currently require inclusion of audit opinions and reports at the earlier presentation date only where they are available, although they must be included in time for tabling of the report in the Assembly. As the government response to the Auditor-General report indicated, this has been a pragmatic response to the very short time for the preparation and auditing of statements. Therefore, while in practice reports are provided in good time each year, taking up this change to the act supports a better practice approach to the directions. It also provides the clear date which audit considered was desirable for provision of reports. Removal of the earlier presentation date also provides agencies and the Auditor-General with a bit more flexibility in managing the audit process without any real impact on when reports are provided to members and to the public. Proposed approaches retain the benefits of the current legislative framework. Information on all agencies is provided as soon as practicable after the end of the reporting period, permitting the Assembly the opportunity to consider and review annual reports very soon after the end of the reporting period.

A new act is provided rather than a series of amendments to the 1995 act. This provides a clearer piece of legislation, as well as implementing the Auditor-General’s recommendations. The redraft provides a clearer piece of legislation as well as introducing current drafting practice. In addition to replacing the presentation and tabling

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