Page 3 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 14 February 2012
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
(b) provide the Independent Auditor with all relevant records including relevant building access records and ICT information for the relevant period.
When I came into this place in 1998 I had the good fortune to go fairly quickly to a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association regional conference and I was able to associate with some very longstanding members. What I was taught at that time—and that teaching was enhanced considerably over my 14-odd years here—was about the principles of parliamentary purity. It was about the expectations of the community that not only would things be done correctly but that they would be seen to be done correctly—that there was, in fact, an expectation in the community that we would look after the taxpayers’ funds and expend those funds appropriately and with transparency.
The freedom of information documents which appeared on the Legislative Assembly’s website show, in my view, an alarming story. Mr Speaker, I need to advise for the record that I did ask the question about the attendance records that were the subject of the freedom of information request in the annual reports hearing late last year and you did indicate to me that the documents would be put on the website once they had been through the normal freedom of information procedures.
I did not immediately launch into the media then with accusations. I had my suspicions at the time but I did not launch into it. I waited until those documents appeared on the website. And when I saw those documents, it gave me very grave cause for concern. Since the story has hit the media, I have had even greater concern that the way in which the stories have been treated by the Leader of the Opposition has indicated contempt for the process and a dismissal, as though none of this really matters, in an attempt to trivialise the fact that attendance records are indeed accountable documents. They used to be accountable documents under the audit act and I would hope they now come under the Financial Management Act, because those documents authorise the payment of funds from the taxpayers’ purse.
We are not talking about the everyday nine to five bits. We are talking about the accumulation of time off in lieu and we are talking about the accumulation of overtime in excess of the seven per cent allowance which has been built into members’ staff salaries. There has to be an accounting, a transparent accounting, of those expenditures.
I was concerned to see that over 22 months those documents were not provided. I am assuming—and I am happy for the Leader of the Opposition to come back on Thursday and correct me here—that when those requests from the Clerk’s office to have those documents completed were actually complied with, they all came in one hit; they all came in one packet. I am curious to know whether they were signed on the same day, whether they were certified on the same day, and I would like to know how it is that the memory can actually be so good as to remember what happened in one’s office some 14 months earlier.
Opposition members interjecting—
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video