Page 3365 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 17 August 2010
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concern. ACPAC meets every two years in conference, and meets between conferences, in the form of a mid-term meeting to, firstly, discuss and agree on an agenda for the biennial ACPAC conference and, secondly, discuss issues specifically pertaining to Australasian public accounts committees.
In accordance with the ACPAC constitution, the mid-term meeting discussed the proposed program, format and theme for the 11th biennial ACPAC conference to be held in Perth, in April 2011. The proposed theme for the conference is “Seeking improved performance for public accounts committees: what works well?”
Mr Barr: Important lessons.
MS LE COUTEUR: Pursuant to the ACPAC constitution, amongst other things, one of the aims of ACPAC is to provide an education service for the elected members of parliament. As the committee has noted on previous occasions, the opportunity to attend an ACPAC biennial conference is a worthwhile and valuable professional development opportunity for new and experienced members of parliament.
A range of issues pertaining to the Australasian public accounts committees was also discussed at the mid-term meeting, including, firstly, public finance and financial accountability reforms occurring across jurisdictions; secondly, the role of auditor-generals in scrutinising government advertising; thirdly, the New Zealand finance and expenditure committee’s review of standard estimates questions; and, fourthly, the use of social networking as a medium for seeking participation in committee inquiries.
Mr Barr: Facebook? You can imagine how many followers that would get.
MS LE COUTEUR: The committee sincerely thanks the Tasmanian public accounts committee, its secretariat and the Tasmanian parliament for their warm welcome and hospitality in hosting the 2010 ACPAC mid-term meeting.
Mr Barr interjecting—
MS LE COUTEUR: All public accounts committees in attendance at the meeting provided a jurisdictional report highlighting selected activity undertaken by respective committees over the period since the 10th biennial ACPAC conference held in Wellington, New Zealand, in April 2009.
Mr Barr interjecting—
MS LE COUTEUR: In concluding this statement on the committee’s recent participation and attendance at the ACPAC mid-term meeting, I seek leave to table, firstly, the committee’s jurisdictional report as presented at the meeting and, secondly, Mr Hargreaves’s meeting report as provided to the committee.
Mr Barr: Oh, yes, absolutely. I want to hear about Facebook.
Leave granted.
MS LE COUTEUR: Thank you. I table the following papers:
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