STATUTORY AUTHORITIES REVIEW COMMITTEE: ANNUAL REPORT 2012-13

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (20:42): I move:

That the annual report of the committee 2012-13 be noted.

As members would be aware, the Statutory Authorities Review Committee is a multipartite parliamentary standing committee, whose five members are drawn solely from the Legislative Council. The tabled report is the 58^th report of the committee, the 18^th annual report and my sixth as the presiding member. As expected, the report represents a summary of the committee's activities for 2012-13.

The committee met on 18 occasions during the reporting year, tabled a report into the EPA inquiry and has two ongoing references. The EPA inquiry report was tabled on 5 February 2013. The inquiry commenced in May 2011. It received 15 written submissions and heard oral evidence from 23 witnesses. The committee made six recommendations. The report, recommendations and response from the minister have already been placed on the public record and, given the time, I will not repeat them.

In relation to the two ongoing inquiries, the first inquiry into Funds SA commenced in November 2012. The committee received four written submissions and heard oral evidence from 21 witnesses, commencing on 2 May 2013. The second inquiry into the State Procurement Board commenced in May 2013. We received nine written submissions, though I do acknowledge that one of the submissions had supporting letters, but they were not signed so, therefore, had no status for our purposes.

Given that I will not be here for the noting of the two ongoing inquiries, I will make mention—

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: Shame!

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO: Thank you, the Hon. John Dawkins—that we anticipate that the committee will be tabling the Funds SA inquiry report out of session, as well as the State Procurement Board interim report out of session. In relation to the Funds SA inquiry, the committee is still seeking further information which will assist in its deliberations. However, as I have already mentioned, I will not be part of the new parliament and I would like to take the liberty of saying that, in my view, the investment of funds in our state is sound.

In relation to the State Procurement Board, we have not had the opportunity to hear all our witnesses and, indeed, not even deliberated at any level, and the interim report recommends that the new committee in the new parliament continue with the inquiry.

In relation to other activities of the committee during the reporting year, the Hon. Gerry Kandelaars and the Hon. Terry Stephens attended the 12^th biennial conference of the Australasian Council of Public Accounts Committees (known as ACPAC) from 10 to 12 April 2013 in Sydney.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank all members of the committee for their ongoing work—Hon. Rob Lucas, Hon. Ann Bressington, Hon. Terry Stephens, and you, Mr President, until 17 October 2012 when you resigned for reasons of attaining higher office. The Hon. Gerry Kandelaars was a member from 17 October 2012.

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: Is there a committee Gerry hasn't been on?

The Hon. T.J. Stephens: A good hardworking member.

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO: Absolutely. He is a very good, hardworking member. I thank the staff for their service throughout the year—our secretary from July to December 2012, Mr Gareth Hickery, who is on long service leave; Ms Linda Eckert, our acting secretary from January 2013 to June 2013; Ms Eva Nikitas, our research officer from July to February 2013, who left for the happy reason of starting a family; and Ms Debbie Bletsas, our research officer from April till June 2013.

It has been a pleasure chairing the committee for nearly five years—it will be five years by the time of the election—and I offer members my best wishes in all their future deliberations.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (20:47): I start my contribution by thanking the Hon. Carmel Zollo for her stewardship over the last five years. I have been on this committee for my entire parliamentary career and she has had this committee in her control over the last five years. I believe it is a very good committee that serves the people of South Australia and this parliament.

Can I also thank the staff. I will not mention everybody, as the presiding member (Hon. Carmel Zollo) has just been through that and, given that it is going to be a long night, I will not go down that path. I thank the members of the committee for their work. It has been a pleasure to serve with Hon. Carmel Zollo, Hon. Gerry Kandelaars, Hon. Ann Bressington, Hon. Rob Lucas and, of course you, Mr President, for that brief period before you abandoned us for the richness and chocolates of the presidency.

I will say that I appreciated, in particular, working with the Hon. Gerry Kandelaars on this committee and seeing the Hon. Rob Lucas and the Hon. Gerry Kandelaars working on the Funds SA inquiry, in particular. Both have a breadth and depth of knowledge that is impressive and I have enjoyed participating and watching those two members bouncing off each other and, I think, pulling apart what is a very interesting issue.

Whilst we have not finalised our report, I believe that it has been a very interesting inquiry. Of course, we travelled to Melbourne and Sydney, and I must thank the Hansard staff who travelled with us.

The Hon. Carmel Zollo: That was after June.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: It was after June, but I would like to say that we did spend quite a bit of time together and it was a very interesting exercise.

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: Do you want to tell us more?

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: No. As you know, Mr Chairman, it is one thing to spend a couple of hours on a committee, but if you are travelling away from home you do spend a period of time together, so it is always good to learn from other members of parliament, and in particular it is great that the Hansard people come along and support us.

With those few words, I would like to support the Hon. Carmel Zollo and thank her for her service, other members of the committee and, as I said, the staff. I look forward to the continuation of the two very worthwhile inquiries we have been reporting on. The new SARC that will come into play after the next parliament will certainly have some interesting stuff to go on with in regard to the inquiry into the Procurement Board. I commend the report to the council.

Motion carried.