Bills

Public Finance and Audit (Auditor-General Access to Cabinet Submissions) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 14 June 2023.)

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (10:32): This bill has been sitting on the Notice Paper now for some time and, if ever there was a bill that not only the government had the opportunity to assess, but that has had a decent and thorough airing in the public domain, then this is it. This bill ought to be passed and passed today, and it is high time that that occurred. We have been saying that for months. As we stand here today it is not just us saying so, but in the words of a succinct, straight to the point and emphatic report of the Auditor-General himself tabled in this place yesterday, we hear loud and clear the reasons why this is necessary.

Against the background of the bill having sat on the Notice Paper for as long as it has, and the Auditor-General's Report having been tabled in the parliament yesterday, it was a most invidious position indeed that the Treasurer found himself in on radio this morning, being rolled out by this government yet again to defend the government's shocking record of secrecy when it comes to the release of such documents. As I stand here this morning, I tell the house that I call bullshit on this—

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Heysen, be seated. There is a point of order from the member for West Torrens.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Sir, that is clearly unparliamentary language—

The SPEAKER: Very.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —and the member should apologise.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr TEAGUE: I withdraw. The steaming—

The SPEAKER: It has been withdrawn.

Mr TEAGUE: —bovine excrement that has come from the government in response to this bill, but more particularly in response to the calls made by the Auditor-General over a sustained period of time now leading up to the tabling of the report yesterday, is nothing short of shameful.

Let me just spell it through. It is the sort of thing that not only all members of this place but members of the public should be reading, and I call on the media in this regard to step up and perform its role. It could not be clearer that for the government to say that what has gone on since March 2022, in terms of government process with regard to these documents, is the same as what occurred in the previous government is nothing short of misleading and deceptive.

What has happened is the continuation of a policy, PCO47, which was instituted by the Marshall government on the basis that if the Auditor-General asks, the Auditor-General receives. What has happened since March 2022 is that when the Auditor-General asks, the Auditor-General does not receive. You only need to go to page 20 of the Auditor-General's Report tabled in the parliament.

The Auditor-General has spelled out in a short table the catalogue of requests the Auditor-General has made since March 2022: on 26 July 2022, six cabinet submissions; in August, four; in February 2023, two cabinet submissions; again in February, four more; April 2023, four more; 17 July 2023, 12 cabinet submissions. On each occasion the Auditor-General has been told no—boom boom, no response, no permission.

To go back to an understanding of the reality about this, because there is a bit of an interest out there in spin and in putting things into some sort of context that suits the government, this is spin of the highest order. We go back to 2016—again, read the Auditor-General's Report. In 2016, after decades—decades—of practice in which the Auditor-General would routinely seek the necessary documents in order to discharge the Auditor-General's audit functions, the Auditor-General would be provided with precisely what the Auditor-General asked for.

In 2016, and remember this was the former Weatherill-Rau government, the Deputy Premier came along to the Auditor-General and said, 'Sorry, from now on you won't be getting any more access to these documents according to the decades-long practice.' Guess who else was around the cabinet table at that time? We are drawing the connection through to what has been of longstanding practice. It is none other than the current Premier.

Peter Malinauskas, the current Premier, had been elected a year or so before, and he found himself sitting around that cabinet table that presumably delegated the Deputy Premier to go and see the Auditor-General and say, 'No, no. Now we are going to move the culture of secrecy into the Auditor-General's space, and you are not going to get these documents anymore.' The Auditor-General railed against that, and we had then a short period of time prior to the 2018 election where there was a reluctant cabinet policy where you sort of get something, maybe, if you ask for it.

The Auditor-General then raised that early in the days of the Marshall government. He said, 'Hey, this is a problem caused by what the Deputy Premier imposed on me in 2016.' The Marshall government said, 'Okay, fine. Let's adopt a new policy.' PCO47 comes along. The process then is: the Auditor-General asks, the Premier approves, the Auditor-General receives. That was applied from 2019 with universal response, but for—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

Mr TEAGUE: It is on the face of the document; it is on the face of the Auditor-General's Report. It was complied with to the point where the Auditor-General was able to discharge his functions.

The government has come along now, since March 2022, and said, 'Hang on,' and tried to tell the Auditor-General how to suck eggs by saying, 'Oh, well, cabinet confidentiality is an underpinning principle of the Westminster system.' How very august, to go and tell the Auditor-General how to suck eggs on this front. As recently as April this year, the CE of DPC came along to the Auditor-General and said, 'Guess what? I know this is getting a bit tense, I know this is a bit dysfunctional and I know that it's a bit cute to just roll out these august principles, so I tell you what I will do: I will precis for you what we think you need to know. I will kind of precis for you.'

You find that on page 21 of the report. The CE of DPC was going to make written representations to the Auditor-General about cabinet decisions and processes in the context of the audit request. The Auditor-General belled the cat on that and said, 'No, I am an independent statutory officer. I have audit duties, whether I like it or not, and I am just telling you that won't cut it.'

There is a bit of back-and-forth, and the current government has to be well aware of this. There is a bit of back-and-forth post April 2023. Bear in mind that this private member's bill is sitting on the Notice Paper the entire time and the Auditor-General says at the bottom of page 21 of his report, at the end of that, after the Auditor-General has belled the cat on it: 'No further correspondence occurred on these requests.'

We see at the beginning of this report on page 9, and this should be just basic to government operation, the Auditor-General saying, 'Hey, I have these functions. I have to be able to obtain sufficient evidence that transactions have occurred'—he puts it in bold text, just to make it really clear—'properly and lawfully, and that is required of every audit'.

I am sorry, but while PCO47 operates properly, that is okay—that is the 2019 to 2022 version: 'Ask and you shall receive,'—but post 2022, when the new Malinauskas Labor government comes along, 'Ask and you shall receive' turns into zero response, secrecy, lack of transparency: 'You will not receive what you have asked for,' with the result that the Auditor-General cannot do his job.

In April 2023, you get the DPC chief saying, 'Yes, okay, I will give you this version that might work.' No, it does not cut it, and so the Auditor-General, whose term is soon to conclude, gives the parliament the benefit of that experience in a succinct report that spells out what he has not been able to do over the course of the Malinauskas Labor government.

The reason why we need now to legislate in circumstances where, as the Auditor-General says, for decades convention served its purpose, is that unless you pin this government down to ironclad rules you can expect from Malinauskas Labor that at every available turn they will choose secrecy over transparency. They will seek hiding away instead of telling the public what they deserve to know about the way that public money is spent. They have a record of it from early on and it extends right into this place when the government walked away from a time limit on responses to questions on notice. From day one in this place through to right now, yesterday the Auditor-General's Report, this bill must be passed today.

Time expired.

Mr ODENWALDER (Elizabeth) (10:43): I move:

That the debate be adjourned.

The house divided on the motion:

Ayes 23

Noes 12

Majority 11

AYES

NOES

PAIRS

Motion thus carried; debate adjourned.