Page 894 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 29 March 2011
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husband is with her today, because I know that Tu is eternally grateful for the assistance, time and support she was given to allow her to be the Auditor-General and all her other roles. Tu’s devotion to her family is shown in her getting them from wherever they were, scattered across South-East Asia, to Australia. Not all the children are here, are they? I think one is in America. But her devotion to her parents, her siblings and her own children is such that everything, I suspect, that Tu Pham does is probably never for Tu Pham. I think at the top of her list would be her family and then certainly the people of the ACT.
That is the example—that you can be successful, that you can achieve, that you can lead, but that at the heart of it you do not have to surrender who and what you are. In the case of Tu Pham that is a daughter, a wife and a mother, and she has never relinquished that. I doubt that she ever would. I doubt that, in fact, she ever could, because to take that out of Tu Pham would be to take the essence of Tu Pham away from herself. I think it is a tremendous example to all of us, as you climb the corporate ladder or the rungs of the senior public service, that you do not have to lose those things that are incredibly important and, in most cases, are the things that spur you on in the activities that you undertake. For Tu, she has never lost that, and I know her family is immensely proud of her.
On behalf of those of us who have worked with you for a very long period of time, which in my case, Tu, is probably about 16 years, I say congratulations. I know it is not retirement, but I hope you enjoy whatever it is that the world now leads you to, because the world will be a better place for your presence. Thank you.
MR HARGREAVES (Brindabella), by leave: I have been in this place for a long time and I have met some characters along the way. Some of them have given me great amusement; some of them have given me great challenges. The retiring Auditor-General has given me both. I would like to add my seven million dong to the argument while I am here. I would like to make my comments in a couple of ways. One is the professional bit and the other is the personal bit.
Tu Pham said in her retirement speech that when she went from Treasury to the Auditor-General’s Office, it was described as going from the dark side to the even darker side. How true is that? However, there was always the temptation, if you were in the darker side, not to see any light at all, and I do not think we saw that. It is important for us to know that having a grounding in Treasury work, having been a senior officer in the Treasury department, is that sort of extra piece of qualification that is essential in an Auditor-General. We can have people who are qualified in accounting and in audit work specifically, but they do not necessarily bring that particular understanding unless they have been through the work that only work in the Treasury department can give you.
As Mr Smyth said, this is not to take anything away from previous auditors-general, but I do sense that, over the last wee while, the accent on performance audits versus financial audits has been swinging, and it is swinging to the middle. I think that is an appropriate place for it to be.
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