Wednesday, 2 August 2023

Statements on parliamentary committee reports

Integrity and Oversight Committee

The Independent Performance Audits of the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission and the Victorian Inspectorate

Cindy McLEISH (Eildon) (10:08): I rise to make a contribution to a report put forward by the Integrity and Oversight Committee, The Independent Performance Audits of the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission and the Victorian Inspectorate, and mostly I will be focusing on the minority report that was put forward at that time. We do know that there was quite a colourful history to that committee during the last Parliament, with multiple chair changes and plugs being pulled and the like, but the issues that were raised in this minority report are something that I think the whole Parliament needs to reflect on and continue to reflect on, because it very much relates to transparency and the way we do business, and it is so important that the way we do things is open and transparent so we have a good system of government, not one that is interfered with by the government down into the public sector and into agencies. Some of the issues that are raised in the minority report absolutely focus on that.

The purpose of the committee is about keeping our agencies accountable through the monitoring and reviewing of their performance. Now, the ways that you do this are through submissions and public hearings, and you need to be open and hear that evidence with an open mind and look at it not from a political lens but from doing value for the taxpayer, because it is the taxpayer at the end of the day that misses out here, because we want IBAC and the Victorian Inspectorate, which are the subject of this report, to be operating with the highest degree of integrity. We want them to be able to do their job properly, and it needs to be transparent. As I said, these agencies – perhaps IBAC is underfunded; I am sure that they have a lot more work that they need to get on with and because of lack of funding cannot do – are taxpayer-funded agencies, so we need to make sure that the taxpayer gets value for money and the agencies can do the work that they need to do but then the committees can monitor and review that. I think value for money is something that is very, very lost on this government. We have had well over $30 billion in cost overruns, and who pays for that? At the end of the day it is paid for by the taxpayer. At the moment, when the cost of living is going through the roof, we need to get bang for our buck, and absolutely we are not getting bang for our buck.

With the report and the minority report that I am referring to, one of the sentences, and I will read it out, is:

This Minority Report seeks to disclose some of the significant challenges throughout the performance audit process.

There were issues with the company that was appointed to do the auditing. Nevertheless, if there were issues, there are still ways for governments to behave, and what we saw was the most incredible interference, political interference, by the Labor Party into the outcome of the audit. I am referring to an email from Dustin Halse, the former chair and former member for Ringwood, on 6 October 2022. As I have said, there were a number of challenges, but towards the end of this email that he sent to particular people from the company in question is a direct quote:

For certainty, the Committee will not be in a position to approve the report if the above instructions (also noting the red flag items below) are not actioned in their entirety.

What is that saying? That is saying, ‘We want you to do what we want you to do.’ It is not allowing the auditor to be independent. It is to say to the auditor, ‘You must toe the line. This is what we want you to do, and if you do not do that, we are not going to approve the report.’ This is political interference and soft corruption at the highest level. It is staggering that this happened, and this is what caused the former chair of IBAC to write a letter to the Presiding Officers.