Page 4704 - Week 12 - Thursday, 1 November 2018
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extensively investigated a number of land deals, and the government has on a number of occasions failed to meet the minimum standards expected by the audit office and the wider community.
This bill does not create an administrative burden; it simply requires the minister to make available the due diligence on which every acquisition should be based. The reporting of a brief summary of the business case for each acquisition ensures that the government spending that has occurred can be scrutinised in an appropriate way. Not only will this provide more information but I hope that it will also raise the standard within the government of what information should be processed prior to an acquisition being made.
In a similar way as ICAC, by nature of it being a reactive body, this will hopefully prevent dodgy things happening, I hope that the reactive reporting outlined in this bill will also prevent bad administration occurring as well. We believe that any expenditure of public funds should be undertaken only after careful consideration of all the information available and that these decisions should stand up to scrutiny.
While this legislation does not completely eliminate the possibility that something untoward could occur, it significantly reduces the risk that decisions can or will be made without proper justification and without accountability. Every time an acquisition will be made, it will now be reportable. That is a good step forward for the territory.
I would particularly like to thank the Parliamentary Counsel’s Office for all their hard work behind the scenes, including their efforts as late as this afternoon, to have these amendments ready prior to today’s debate. The staff working on this bill in Parliamentary Counsel’s Office have been particularly patient, insightful and accommodating to all parties and they have expended exceptional effort to get both the bill and the amendments ready today. Their work really is of a very high calibre.
I also want to thank the public servants and Assembly advisers from all parties who have devoted considerable time to getting this legislation to this point today and I particularly want to thank Ausilia in my office, who has done a huge amount of work and a huge amount of communication and negotiation on behalf of the opposition. I think the fact that we are debating this and that we now will have this act of parliament in operation is largely due to the work that she has done. I also want to thank Ms Rafferty for her work in preparing the cheat sheet for today, which was no easy feat.
In closing, I would like to say that the Canberra Liberals will continue to do all we can to ensure that there is more integrity in the ACT government, and I look forward to bringing on more legislation that will help bring about more transparency and more scrutiny on behalf of ACT taxpayers.
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella—Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Minister for Planning and Land Management, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister assisting the Chief Minister on Advanced Technology and Space Industries) (5.42): In conclusion too, I would like to thank Mr Coe and
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