Page 5582 - Week 13 - Thursday, 17 November 2011
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than an independent and impartial manner, and the only interest she will seek to further in the role—
Mr Doszpot: Does she have any accounting skills?
MS HUNTER: is the broader public interest of ensuring that the government is accountable for its actions and responsive to the needs of the community. Mr Doszpot is making it very clear to all of us that he has absolutely no confidence in the Auditor-General.
Mr Doszpot: I’m asking: has she got accounting qualifications?
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ms Le Couteur): Mr Doszpot, please be quiet.
MS HUNTER: The ACT Greens are confident that she will provide a frank and fearless account to the parliament and that she will be diligent in performing her functions. She has been the commissioner for the environment—
Mr Doszpot interjecting—
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER Mr Doszpot, if you continue, I will warn you. Ms Hunter, you have the floor.
MS HUNTER: She has been the commissioner for the environment for the past four years and there is no evidence to suggest that she has not acquitted that role well and fulfilled all the tasks required of her in a manner consistent with the requirements of the Commissioner for the Environment Act and consistent with the expectations that we have of all of our statutory office holders.
Previously the Greens have expressed some concerns that the requirements for the position of Auditor-General should be clearer. That is a matter that we will revisit at another point in time. However, that should not be taken in a way that suggests that we think that Dr Cooper is somehow not up to the job. Rather, it suggests that we think there needs to be a more general consideration about the requirements of the act.
No matter who is appointed, I think all members of this place are entitled to have some concern that they will do the job well and some level of apprehension that they do a good job, because it is an incredibly important job. We know how critical this role is. We entrust the Auditor-General, as an officer of the parliament, to exercise a very important role on our behalf—to ensure the probity of executive action. No reason has been given for us to suspect that Dr Cooper would do anything other than her best to provide this Assembly with an objective, independent account of what has happened and measures to ensure the continual improvement of government processes. The Greens look forward to working with Dr Cooper to ensure the best outcomes for our community, and we will not be supporting this disallowance motion today.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (4.38): I will be brief. I support the motion brought forward by Mr Smyth, I think Mr Smyth has set out very well and very comprehensively our concerns over the appointment, both the manner
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