Page 2384 - Week 08 - Thursday, 6 June 2013
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Leave of absence
Motion (by Mr Corbell) agreed to:
That leave of absence be granted for all Members for the period 7 June to 5 August 2013.
Public Accounts—Standing Committee
Report 2
MR SESELJA (Brindabella) (11.50): I present the following report:
Public Accounts—Standing Committee—Report 2—Report on the 12th Biennial Conference of the Australasian Council of Public Accounts Committees (ACPAC), dated 6 June 2013, together with a copy of the extracts of the relevant minutes of proceedings.
I move:
That the report be noted.
I rise today to present this report on the attendance by the Standing Committee on Public Accounts at the 12th biennial conference of the Australasian Council of Public Accounts Committees, hosted by the New South Wales parliament’s public accounts committee at Parliament House, Sydney, in April this year. These conferences attract members and secretariats of public accounts committees and auditors-general and their staff from across Australia, the Pacific, Africa, Asia and Europe.
I was pleased that all members of the ACT Standing Committee on Public Accounts attended the conference. I was also pleased to make a presentation to the conference regarding the status of the ACT Auditor-General as an officer of parliament, in particular asking: “Does it make a difference?” This question has particular resonance in this place in view of recent discussions on conferring that status on some other statutory office holders. This led into a panel discussion by present and former auditors-general and their officers from Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia and New Zealand, and the Hon David Morris MP, Chair of the Victorian Public Accounts and Estimates Committee.
Other points of interest included presentations by the Chair of the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit in the Parliament of Australia, Rob Oakeshott MP, and Professors Zahirul Hoque of La Trobe University, Sue Newberry of the University of Sydney, David Gilchrist of Curtin University, and Kerry Jacobs from the Australian National University.
The formal presentations are one side of ACPAC. These conferences also maintain a high standard of debate and collegial interaction. So there is a lot of value in the interactions between attendees. It is notable that in this case attendees included those from all Australian jurisdictions, and internationally from Bougainville, Samoa,
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