House of Assembly Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3) 51 3 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Parliamentary Catering Accounts PARLIAMENTARY CATERING ACCOUNTS Mr HANNA House of Assembly Mitchell PARLIAMENTARY CATERING ACCOUNTS Mr HANNA (Mitchell) (15:10): Sir, my question is to you, as an officer of the Joint Parliamentary Service Committee. Why has the JPSC refused disclosure to the Auditor-General in relation to his requests about the dining and refreshment services of Parliament House? The JPSC runs the administrative machinery of Parliament House. It is secretive. Members of parliament cannot even get minutes of the committee. Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! There have been ongoing requests for many years from the Auditor-General for access to the catering fund. When any customer of the catering services buys something the payment goes into that fund. The Joint Parliamentary Service Committee met with the Auditor-General, at my request, and the Auditor-General reiterated that request and gave his reasons. There was a vote taken by the committee and the vote of the committee was against giving access to those accounts. The arguments for not giving access to those accounts were that that account does not consist of any public funds. It is funded by customers of the catering services: when they buy something, it is the money that they pay. There is no public money. None of the budget that is provided to the joint services goes into that account. So, the committee resolved to continue its policy of not providing the Auditor-General with that information. I would point out that it is an audited account. It is audited by a private auditor. I do not have the details of that auditor, the name of that auditor, but it is an audited account, it is just not audited by the Auditor-General.