Page 3805 - Week 12 - Thursday, 24 October 2013
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The Assembly relies on the Auditor-General and the Ombudsman to fulfil particular functions on behalf of members of this place. It would simply not be possible for the 17 of us to investigate every complaint about a government service. That is why we have the Ombudsman, whose job it is to investigate those issues and work with both complainants and agencies to resolve the issues and get the best possible outcomes. Similarly, the financial audits and particularly the performance audits performed by the Attorney-General fulfil a vital part of improving government performance that assists all members, both executive and non-executive, in fulfilling their functions.
The Electoral Commission, of course, plays a vital role in administering the electoral system and the responsibility for that administration should be directly to the Assembly collectively rather than to a single minister. Any argument to suggest otherwise I believe is ill-considered and inconsistent with the basic premise that not only do we have an individual responsibility to represent the views and values of those who voted for us and our parties but also we have a collective responsibility to make sure that the system that gets us here is as fair, transparent and accessible as possible. No one member is in any better position to achieve that than any other.
In presenting the bill I spoke at some length about how important the Greens believe it is to strengthen, adapt and evolve the accountability mechanisms that we have in place to ensure that the government is accountable for its actions and that any deficiencies in those actions can be fixed and, if necessary, highlighted to the public.
This is essentially why these office holders—the Auditor-General, the Ombudsman and Electoral Commission members—should be formally recognised as officers of the Assembly. The nature of their roles and the special relationship that they have with parliamentary functions is such that they should be recognised as different from other statutory officers. It is simply not appropriate that they be responsible to a particular minister rather than the Assembly as a whole and there should be formal mechanisms in place both to guarantee their independence and also foster a collaborative working arrangement with the members of this place.
Officers of the parliament, as they are more generally known, are recognised in many other Australian parliaments. Importantly, the officers themselves are all, I understand, keen to become officers of the Assembly. The fact that those entrusted with these roles believe that they are best executed in collaboration with the Assembly rather than notionally under the control of a minister demonstrates what a worthwhile reform this is.
This is the second of the package of governance reform bills that the Greens committed to deliver at the election. As I said in presenting the bill, the three mechanisms—improving access to judicial review, strengthening integrity agencies and increasing the availability of government information—together will help ensure that the government is more accountable for its conduct and decisions, more efficient in its operations and more responsive to the views of the community.
There are a few amendments both from me and the Chief Minister that will be moved in the detailed stage. I would just say at this stage that I am pleased that we have come
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