Wednesday, 19 June 2024

 Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (10:54): I am very pleased to rise and speak on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee’s report on the 2021–22 and 2022–23 financial and performance outcomes, which I tabled in Parliament early in March this year, which quite frankly seems like a lifetime ago now we are on the verge of winter break. As this chamber knows, evaluating public sector reporting and performance is a key part of the function of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee. It is actually a really important function for the committee and for the Parliament. These performance outcomes are undertaken on an annual basis. Having said that, there was a little bit of confusion about this report covering not one but two financial years, from July 2021 to June last year. Really the main reason for this was completely simple. It was totally normal. The state election, which seems, like I said just previously, to have been a lifetime ago – it seems like two lifetimes ago – took place in the middle of this period and is the reason why we evaluated the two financial years in the one report.

We know that during this time we have faced some really tough economic challenges. They are challenges that have been debated here in this place time and time again, including the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic and the vaccination race that took place at the end of 2021, and these events have had a flow-on impact to today. Challenges and events like this undoubtably place significant strain and challenge on the performance of government and, importantly, on the departments that carry out this very important work. In light of this, however, it is pleasing to note that despite these tough challenges, our government is meeting most, if not all, of its medium-term fiscal goals.

In addition, this report provides some really insightful details on the rollout of some of our government’s wonderful policy initiatives, including the establishment of primary care centres and mental health clinics – we have talked a lot about that this year, about the importance of those primary care centres and those mental health clinics – and of course our government’s historic capital investment program into our schools, as well as our disability inclusion reform program. These are all policies that I know have not only affected but immensely benefited folks in the electorate of Laverton. So whether that is in things like health care, education or indeed other portfolios, it is really pleasing to be able to read with insight into how things are being delivered and then out on the hustings and on the frontline to understand how they are benefiting folks.

This report makes 140 findings across 14 chapters covering government departments and organisations, including the eight major government departments, Parliament and Court Services Victoria, which look at their experiences in delivering not only the day-to-day services, which are really important but in the delivery of key infrastructure and services that our community relies upon. There are 56 recommendations which aim to improve performance measures, the way that they are evaluated and the way in which they are reported during this process so that as a government we can set better targets and better goals for the performance of government bodies and programs, because at the end of the day that will benefit all Victorians.

I also do want to thank my fellow committee members for their work and their contribution to the report. This is a long report, and it required hours and hours in the public hearings but also in the time it took for deliberation on the report. There was really great work on both sides of the chamber. I also really want to thank the work of the committee secretariat, who I know have been diligent in their support and work in preparing this report. The amount of hours that the secretariat staff put in, not just of Public Accounts and Estimates Committee but indeed all committees across the Parliament, and the amount of work and effort that they put in to writing these reports – some of them are very, very lengthy reports, and I am not saying this one was in particular, but some of the reports can be really dry – is absolutely extraordinary. People like me and I would say those sitting in the chamber today would not be able to do their job and committee work without the support of secretariat staff, so I give a really big shout-out and a really big thankyou to them. I am very pleased to be able to commend the report to the house. I will briefly say as the chair of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee it is reports like this that make me very proud to do the job.