Wednesday, 4 October 2023

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Report on the 2023–24 Budget Estimates

Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (17:42): I rise to speak today on the 2023–24 budget estimates report from the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC), and I am very pleased to do so following a well-timed segue, perhaps an unplanned one, from Mr Davis.

David Davis: And note that some people do read it.

Michael GALEA: I had the pleasure of reading it, as you can well imagine, as a member of the committee, along with other members from this chamber, Mrs McArthur and the deputy chair Nick McGowan. I had the great pleasure of taking part in the estimates process this year along with my two colleagues from the Council and colleagues from the Assembly. I would like to particularly acknowledge the chair of the committee Sarah Connolly, the member for Laverton, who did an outstanding job in her first year chairing the PAEC estimates process. She did an outstanding job of shepherding us all through, along with other colleagues of course, including the member for Point Cook, the member for Yan Yean, the member for Melbourne, the member for Gippsland South and the member for Box Hill. We are very grateful to him especially as he has now stepped off the committee; I would like to congratulate him on his new role as a parliamentary secretary. He will be greatly missed on the committee.

Above all I would actually like to thank the committee staff, particularly Caroline Williams, the executive officer, and all of her officials who have worked tirelessly on this report. As members here will know, we have a wonderful privilege to shape, to probe and to investigate, but the bulk of the work on these reports is always done by those committee secretariat staff, so I would like to acknowledge their very hard work through this process.

This is an important part of our democratic system, estimates each year. We will have all sorts of comments and criticisms, but I think it is really important to note that this is a really robust process that we go through. There are obviously lots of factors and there are questionnaires and other things too, but the most prominent part of the estimates process is of course the hearings: 58 hours and 40 minutes I believe it was, Mrs McArthur, this year. You might correct me, but I think it was that long that we were in the room for with different departments, different portfolios and different ministers.

We often hear some criticism, sometimes from those opposite, saying that we should have a Senate-style system like they do in the federal Parliament for estimates, but I think it is a really good thing that in our system in Victoria every single minister gets compelled to attend, to be interviewed and to answer questions on their portfolios. In the Senate system you only get the ministers who are senators. To those members who do call for that, I would remind them that a feature of what we have is that all ministers, not just those in the Council, are compelled to attend.

There were a number of contributions on the report in the Assembly this morning. I only discovered this week that while we have the great privilege of being able to speak on all manner of reports that are tabled in this place, our poor colleagues in the Assembly only get to comment on committee reports. They have been waiting for this day so they could speak on the estimates report, and I appreciate their contributions, particularly those which referred to the member for Gippsland South as the father of PAEC, this being his ninth year on the committee. Congratulations to him. There was some debate as to whether he is the father or the grandfather of PAEC, and I am happy to align myself with those saying he is the father of PAEC.

We had robust discussion in those hearings. Some of the questioning from colleagues – I will not give Mr McGowan a hard time; he is not here today, so we will save that debate for another day. But it is something to be taken seriously. I also do very much appreciate the decorum of all members and the general goodwill and respect of all members. It was certainly good to see no-one putting their feet on the table this year for one, a marked improvement.

In closing, I basically just want to acknowledge again, as I said, the work of the secretariat that went into this report. I would also like to note to members that the report is a really good resource, particularly for those of us who are newer members. Each department has a really good summary prepared by the secretariat, endorsed by the committee, which really gives a good breakdown of how each department operates, how it functions and how that has changed in the previous year. It is a good part of our process. I am happy to be speaking on the report today, and it is good to see full support for it from the committee members.