Wednesday, 30 August 2023

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Report on the Appointment of a Person to Conduct the Financial Audit of the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office

Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (10:16): Thank you to the member for Gippsland South. I will be sure to mention you in particular as I make a contribution on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee report on something that I know is very close to the member for Gippsland South’s heart, the appointment of a person to conduct the financial audit of the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office. This is a small report but one that is required of the committee every term under the Audit Act 1994 and is indeed – and it may be a surprise for many people – a key function of the PAEC.

The Auditor-General plays a really important role in this state in ensuring that the public service – our government bodies and departments – is operating appropriately and, most importantly, is accountable to Parliament and, through us here in this place, the broader community. They make sure that the funding we allocate to government departments is actually spent accordingly. Like these public service entities, even the Auditor-General’s office does need auditing, which is quite obviously something that it cannot do itself. That is why, as many in this place would know, there is a statutory requirement for the committee to appoint an auditor for the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office.

It was the recommendation of this current PAEC that Mr Kenneth Weldin of PKF Melbourne Audit and Assurance go ahead and conduct this audit for a period of 12 months. Mr Weldin replaces Mr Steven Bradby, also of PKF Melbourne Audit and Assurance, who conducted the audits for the entirety of the last term of this Parliament. Mr Weldin is the joint head of audit and assurance at PKF Melbourne and is, really importantly, a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand – a highly qualified person. He brings a wealth of experience in conducting audits, something that, as you would expect, is critically important to auditing a government body like the Auditor-General’s office. Each member of this committee I can assure you has complete confidence that he has the ability and importantly the responsibility to serve as an independent auditor. Mr Weldin will go ahead and table his audit report upon the conclusion of the 2023–24 financial year.

Most notably, this was actually the first report I had the privilege of tabling this term as committee chair, and I want to give a really big shout-out on behalf of the committee. There are members here in this chamber right now that are part of the PAEC, and I know that they will join me in thanking Caroline Williams. Caroline is an extremely capable and a very effective executive officer. She heads up members of the secretariat who worked extremely hard in preparing this report and throughout the whole process of preparing the report. Each and every day they work tremendously hard to support members of the PAEC and indeed write reports that are of a very high standard that are tabled here in this place. The authors of those reports for the work and the research that they do probably do not get thanked enough in this place. On behalf of the committee I would like to thank them wholeheartedly for the work that they have done so far to support us and in writing some great reports but also the work that I know they are going to do going forward with the committee to support the committee by doing a plethora of research and preparing such high-quality reports for members of this place to put their names to.

I also really want to acknowledge my fellow committee members who took part in this process. I have already talked about the member for Gippsland South –

A member: A bit more, though.

Sarah CONNOLLY: A bit more. Well, I do want to thank the member for Gippsland South on behalf of the PAEC for his contributions over many, many years. I am more than happy for you to point out – is it closer to a decade now, member for Gippsland South?

Danny O’Brien: Steady on. Not quite.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair.

Sarah CONNOLLY: A very experienced member of PAEC, I do have to say. I also want to give a big shout-out to the member for Box Hill, who is here beside me – he has done a tremendous job; the member for Point Cook; the member for Yan Yean, who is here sitting in this place; the member for Melbourne; and as I said, the member for Gippsland South. I also want to thank Mr McGowan, the deputy chair of PAEC, Mr Galea and Mrs McArthur in the other place, who also sit on this committee.