Wednesday, 21 June 2023

 Mathew HILAKARI (Point Cook) (10:23): I rise to speak on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC) report of May 2023, Appointment of a Person to Conduct the Financial Audit of the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office. As I have said previously, this is the audit of the auditor. The report comes with a recommendation which was produced on 1 May. I am so glad actually to see the chair of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee here, the member for Laverton, who was vital in the construction of this report. It comes with the recommendation to appoint Mr Kenneth Weldin of PKF Melbourne Audit and Assurance for a period of 12 months. This is to conduct a financial audit of the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office for the financial year ending 30 June 2024. There are a number of elements to that, including the fixed level of payment for that audit to be undertaken. The audit needs to be undertaken by 14 August or soon after – preferably no later in fact is what we say – and prior to the inclusion of the audit opinion in the Auditor-General’s report, so that it can be included in the annual report of the Auditor-General. The term of the previous financial auditor Mr Bradbury will expire after reporting for the financial year 2022–23; he has been the auditor for the years from 2019–20 to 2022–23. There are a lot of numbers that are coming through, but we will see many more numbers in the auditor’s report of course.

On the recommendation for how the auditor for the Auditor-General’s audit report is selected – well, of course it is by recommendation of PAEC, and they are also appointed by resolution of the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly. We have to be clear that we do not have a person who is otherwise engaged under the Auditor-General, holding a delegation from the Auditor-General or has a conflict of interest on the basis of undertaking an independent performance audit for the Auditor-General. These would make this person not suitably qualified to undertake this audit. Our Auditor-General undertakes many audits, so there is actually a smaller pool than for many other roles that are undertaken.

I would like to thank Dr Caroline Williams, the executive officer for PAEC, and Dr Krystle Gatt Rapa and Jacqueline Coleman, who have provided administrative support in this process. I also want to recognise some of the members. I have recognised the chair already and her role on this committee. I would like to recognise the member for Box Hill Mr Hamer and also the member for Yan Yean, who is sitting next to me right now and will also, I understand, speak on this report a little bit later this afternoon.

The Parliament was engaged in the PAEC hearings for nine days most recently. All members of PAEC made a very good contribution, but I particularly want to recognise the new ministers and their roles at the PAEC hearings. They made an extraordinary effort, they and their staff, and they were absolutely consummate professionals. Their professionalism was matched only by the PAEC staff, the staff at Hansard, the catering staff and all the staff in the parliamentary building.

One of the other things that was of particular note at PAEC was the importance of sewers and sewer works and early works for roads. Sewers seemingly was a very big issue that came across at PAEC many, many times, and I understand from previous members of PAEC – like Danny O’Brien, who was at his ninth PAEC hearing – that these matters come up regularly. He has just entered the building in fact. So I thank everybody on PAEC for their efforts and I thank our committee for their work.