Page 2814 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 24 June 2009
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Legislative Assembly and public sector agencies. As a result, the Office will have to continually reassess the priorities of its performance audits, to provide adequate audit coverage of services provided by the ACT Public Service …
So, as she moves forward, it is going to be difficult for her to do so. She has increasing complexity. She asked for additional funding. The office sought additional funding. The funding was supported by both the public accounts committee and the committee on estimates but was not provided by the Treasurer. The Treasurer knows that she is restricting the Auditor-General in her ability to conduct the full range of performance audits that she wants to do to hold this government to account, to be open to the Assembly, to let the people of the ACT know how their important agencies and services are being delivered—things like ambulance services. The Treasurer knows, because she has been told by the Auditor-General, that the Auditor-General needs more money to do her job—and the Treasurer simply said no.
The Chief Minister of the territory has said that he wants to have an audit into her affairs. Clearly it was a threat. Let us have a look, though, at what the report of factual findings into the Auditor-General was in this year’s financial reports. It says:
Based on our procedures, no matters have come to our attention which indicate the Statement of Performance of the ACT Auditor-General’s Office for the year ended 30 June 2008 does not fairly present the performance of the Office in accordance with the Financial Management Act …
So I do not know where his evidence is—
Mr Smyth: Who said that?
MR HANSON: This is the people who did the audit on the—
Mr Smyth: Oh, the independent people.
MR HANSON: Yes, indeed. So I do not know where the—
Mr Stanhope: Every department gets one of those. So we don’t need an Auditor-General, do we, Mr Hanson?
MR HANSON: No, we do. And in actual fact those occur on a regular basis, Chief Minister.
Mr Stanhope: Every department has one of those statements.
MR HANSON: These occur in—
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Stanhope!
MR HANSON: Thank you. We commend the Auditor-General. We commend her for the work she does, the important work, and we condemn the Chief Minister.
MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra—Chief Minister, Minister for Transport, Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, Minister for Business and Economic Development,
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