Riverbank Precinct

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:30): Supplementary: of the meetings of which the criticism has been raised and acknowledged by the minister, were there no records made, or were records made and conveyed to cabinet and therefore are no longer in the agency, or is there any other explanation?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister for Housing and Urban Development) (14:30): Well, it's a good question because the Auditor-General does, I think, attempt to examine that particular delineation between what documents were able to be provided. I think that what the Auditor-General does say is that, in terms of the capacity of government, i.e. ministers in cabinet, to make decisions, there was analysis and there was information that was able to be provided to form the basis of those decisions that were taken at those various junctures at different points in time.

However, that's quite separate, I think, from what the deputy leader is getting at, and that is whether sufficient records were kept, particularly of that meeting she mentioned earlier in her questioning between the former chief executive of the infrastructure agency and Walker Corporation. Given that the description by the Auditor-General of the lack of those records and the documentation that was able to be provided to him, it seems, at least from reading, that those documents were unable to be provided, at least, or potentially uncovered at all.

I think the concern that informs a lot of the recommendations of the Auditor-General about this particular process is that those sorts of meetings between public servants and Walker Corporation were insufficiently documented for the basis of appropriate record keeping in the public sector, let alone for any subsequent overview by somebody like the Auditor-General.