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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-02-06 Daily Xml
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GOVERNMENT INVOICES AND ACCOUNTS

Mr MARSHALL (Norwood—Leader of the Opposition) (15:01): My question is to the Premier. Can the Treasurer advise what is the government's benchmark for the proportion of bills that it is to pay on time?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister for Housing and Urban Development) (15:02): I will take that question on notice and get back to the house.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Torrens.

Mrs GERAGHTY: Thank you, sir—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I warn the member for Davenport and the member for Unley, and in the case of the member for Unley for the second time.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I apologise to the Leader of the Opposition; I thought he said 'builds'. I did not hear you say 'bills'. I'm sorry, I misheard you, that's all.

The SPEAKER: Well, in that case, does the minister wish to revise the answer? The Minister for Finance.

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN (Napier—Minister for Finance, Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:03): The position of the government is that all invoices should be paid within 30 days. In the last six months, excluding health, our performance in late bills has improved from 7 per cent to 3.5 per cent. It is my intention to drive that even further, but there are instances where bills, invoices, have to be questioned: incorrect quality, quantity, poor quality, arriving later than was specified, not meeting specification.

So we will always have invoices that fall into dispute, and to give a percentage of the full 100 per cent of invoices received that would fall into the contestable basket is impossible to do. But what I can say unequivocally is that the performance of the government after the McCann report has improved dramatically and that late bills have fallen from 7 per cent after 30 days to 3.5 per cent, excluding health.

Mr MARSHALL: Supplementary question.

The SPEAKER: No; first of all, Minister for Transport, you do not need to bring back an answer now. Yes, a supplementary, if it is a supplementary.

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