Parliamentary Committees

Economic and Finance Committee: Annual Report 2014-15

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (11:01): I move:

That the 89^th report of the committee, entitled Annual Report 2014-15, be noted.

I will just make a few comments about what the committee did during 2014-15, which seems so long ago now. As at 1 July, the committee comprised of myself, the member for Colton, the then member for Davenport (the Hon. Iain Evans), the member for Stuart, the member for Reynell, the member for Kaurna and the member for Unley.

We had several changes of personnel over the year. On 30 October 2014, the Hon. Iain Evans MP resigned from the committee, and Mr David Speirs, the member for Bright, was appointed. The member for Reynell resigned on 10 February 2015—I was not taking any of this high turnover personally—and the member for Wright was appointed to the committee on the same day.

It is worth reiterating some of the statutory functions of the committee. We had a busy year. As well as having a broad remit to inquire into economic and financial matters, whether self-referred or referred to us by the house, we have specific, ongoing responsibilities under the following statutes: the Emergency Services Funding Act, the Passenger Transport Act, the Gaming Machines Act, the Public Corporations Act, the Motor Accident Commission Act and the Health and Community Services Complaints Act. We held several hearings and tabled a number of reports in relation to these statutory obligations, perhaps most notably in that year the report into the emergency services levy. The committee noted in its report in June that total expenditure on emergency services for 2014-15 was projected to be $255.4 million but was later estimated to reach $260.4 million, mainly due to expenses arising from the 2015 Sampson Flat bushfires.

As well as our statutory obligations, we had a couple of ongoing references during that period, most notably probably early on the National Broadband Network inquiry. On 16 October 2014, the committee resolved on its own motion, a motion brought to the committee by the member for Kaurna, to inquire into and report on the National Broadband Network, particularly in relation to changes to the rollout of that network following the change of the federal government. The committee sought submissions regarding a range of issues, including how its delivery will contribute to South Australia, what policies, programs and other enablers would maximise the benefits, and what impact the structure and schedule of the rollout would have on the state. We received 18 written submissions from private individuals, business groups, education providers, industry peak bodies, local governments, private companies and from NBN Co itself.

As at 30 June, the committee had held eight public hearings, with 45 witnesses representing 28 organisations. We also conducted public hearings, which were a feature of the committee during that period and subsequent periods. There were more public hearings and more regional visits and so, during that time, we visited Port Augusta, Willunga, Elizabeth and, of course, held hearings at Parliament House.

We visited five schools: Port Augusta Secondary School, Aldinga Beach R-7 School, Willunga High School, Gawler and District College B-12 and Fremont-Elizabeth City High School which is now, of course, the excellent Playford International College. This inquiry continued into the 2015-16 reporting period and has since been extensively reported on in this place. I will not go over those arguments again. Next, we resolved on 15 May to inquire into and report on local government rate capping policies. Submissions were sought to identify rate capping policies and practices elsewhere in Australia, including peer reviews of this and other related matters. As at 30 June 2015, the committee had received six submissions including five from local government. At that time, the committee had yet to conduct public hearings. This inquiry, of course, continues and will report at a later date.

Also during this period, on 11 June 2015, following the airing of a Four Corners investigation into the labour hire industry, the committee resolved to inquire into and report on practices in the South Australian labour hire industry. Submissions were sought to help the committee in various ways to identify exploitation and harassment of workers, to look at irregularities in the payment of wages and government levies and to identify various methods by which we could possibly make the industry fairer and safer.

As at 30 June 2015, the committee had yet to receive any formal submissions although, of course, subsequently we have received many submissions and will report on that a later date. It has unfolded into a very large inquiry indeed. I do look forward to the report and I particularly look forward to some of the recommendations when we ultimately bring down that report because it is a very important issue, and I think we can contribute something to making workers' lives a lot safer and a lot fairer.

One of the more interesting things that happened almost immediately after I became Chair of the Economic and Finance Committee during this period was that I also became Chair of the Australasian Council of Public Accounts Committees (ACPAC). It was suddenly my job to host the biennial conference in 2015. This was held at the Adelaide Oval function facility from 15 to 16 April and was attended by approximately 90 delegates from the Asia-Pacific region including India, Samoa, South Africa, Fiji, Indonesia and New Zealand.

During the conference, we looked at community engagement, public policy and performance measurement and the maintenance of public accountability. The speakers and panellists included our very own Attorney-General, the Hon. Roger Gyles QC, who was Chairman of Transparency International at the time, the Hon. Bruce Lander, the ICAC commissioner, and various other academics from Australia and from around the world.

In closing, I want to thank Lisa Baxter and Susie Barber, who I think were our only executive officers during that period, although we had some turnover of staff as well. I want to thank Gordon Elsey, who started with us as a research officer and who is continuing on the labour hire inquiry, particularly, and the rates capping inquiry. I do want to thank the house and the committee staff, not only for their general support but also for their support during the staging of the ACPAC conference, which was a big enterprise indeed. It was bigger than anything the Economic and Finance Committee had ever done on its own before. It utilised all the resources available, and I want to thank people for putting in their own time. I also want to thank, of course, past and present committee members, the current staff and the Clerks for all their good advice at key moments. I commend the report to the house.