Page 2818 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 24 June 2009
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accurate and complete information et cetera. It just goes to show how important the Auditor-General is in our system of government in relation to checks and balances. We can look at those findings in relation to Bruce Stadium just as a reminder of how important the role is.
And then we can go to the Auditor-General’s report into Fujitsu Australia. It is sobering and depressing reading, but once again it is very important. It is very important that we have audit reports into issues such as that.
Mr Hanson: Why are you halving her capability?
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Hanson!
MR STANHOPE: And then, if we needed to be further informed about the importance of the role of the auditor, we could go to the audit report into the V8 car races in Canberra. But for the report of the Auditor-General in relation to that particular matter, we would never have known or understood the extent to which the Liberal Party simply could not manage a chook raffle in a pub.
There is no doubt that the Auditor-General plays a most significant role, a vital role, in informing the ACT Assembly and the community about the performance of the ACT public sector. It plays an equally important role in assisting public sector agencies to improve their processes, their operations more broadly, and their performance in the expenditure of public moneys and delivering services. While the motion by the Leader of the Opposition suggests otherwise, the government recognises absolutely that fundamentally important role; I have just given some examples of how important the roles of auditors have been.
It is as a consequence of that that this government has allocated significant additional resources to the Auditor-General over the last few years. We allocated an additional $500,000 in the 2006-07 budget alone. That is very significant, because that was the budget following the functional review, when agencies across the ACT government suffered significant cuts. The agency, the Auditor-General, through that budget, in a pro rata sense, attained the greatest boost in funding of any ACT government agency, including the department of health, including education, including housing, including disability services. The biggest single boost achieved by an agency in that budget three years ago was by the Auditor-General. In that budget we increased funding for the Auditor-General by 36 per cent—a 36 per cent boost in funding in a single budget to the Auditor-General three years ago.
That rather flies in the face of this litany of abject treatment or behaviour by this government to the Auditor-General: in a budget, a single budget, three years ago, we increased funding for the Auditor-General by 36 per cent. Over the last five years we have increased funding for the Auditor-General by an average of 17 per cent a year. Name one other ACT government agency or ACT government funded agency that can point to a 17 per cent average increase in funding over the last five years. Name one. Department of health? No. Disability services? No. Homelessness services? No. Mental Health services an average of 17 a year? No. Auditor-General? Yes.
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