31 May 2011
Mr MORRIS (Mornington) — It is a pleasure to make some comments on the appropriation for the Parliament for the coming 12 months.
The Appropriation (Parliament 2011/2012) Bill 2011, in the words of the explanatory memorandum: ‘provides appropriation authority for payments from the Consolidated Fund’ for the ensuing year. Of course the amounts are identified in schedule 1 to the bill, and I will come back to those. It is also worth noting that this is the legislative instrument that allows the ongoing funding of the Parliament. There are also special appropriations which do not necessarily expire or lapse annually as this one does, but those are the subject of separate discussions. The bill contains the usual provisions relating to the unapplied appropriations, and the Financial Management Act 1994 comes into play in respect of those matters.
The bill provides the funding necessary for both this house and the other place to function. As other members have mentioned, it provides the funding for the joint parliamentary investigatory committees, for the whole operation of the Department of Parliamentary Services and for the Auditor‑General as well. We are very fortunate in the calibre of the operation of this place and, from observation, the other place; I think they both work very well. When there are hitches, when things do not go well, it is probably more the result of the activity of a member or a group of members of whichever side of the house rather than of the people charged with running the operation. It is a very effective operation.
Comment has been made about the joint investigatory committees. In the spirit of the discussion I will simply note that in fact the funding is up again this year, and this is clear from reference to schedule 1 of the bill. The member for Yuroke made a comment about the government cutting numbers — I think that was the quotation. Unfortunately it was necessary to cut the number of members on the committees given that the Labor Party was not prepared to make further members available to serve on the committees. If the Labor Party chooses not to make members available or if members decline to avail themselves of the opportunity to serve on these committees, the government is not in a position to, nor would it wish to, compel members to participate in the activities of the committees.
On a more general note, you would have to say that for the almost $6.9 million that is proposed to be made available for the committees, they do provide extraordinary value in terms of the contribution they make to the legislative process and to the workings of Parliament. I currently serve on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, so coming out of the budget estimates period I am very much aware of the work that that committee does.
I have had the privilege of serving in the past on the Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee, and in a more general sense I do often take the opportunity, as committee reports come through, to speak on them in the house. I do that for a number of reasons, but one of the reasons is that it causes me to actually read the reports, to become familiar with the work of the various committees and to be aware of what is being done.
I have to say that the material presented to the house is of a high standard. The committees do some extraordinarily good work. It is a very good way for members on both sides to be involved in the process and in getting stuck into solving problems for the state as a whole. That is an important part of what is paid for by the money that is appropriated by the bill.
Another area that is funded is the Department of Parliamentary Services. That funding provides for a whole range of things, including our private staff and electorate offices. In an age of almost instant communication the electorate offices serve a very important function. They enable far swifter and greater communication than ever before between members and their constituents. Given the volume of work and the demands made rightfully by the public on their members, they provide very good value for money for the public.
The Department of Parliamentary Services provides a whole range of things to support the operations of members in their electorates and the wider community. In the little longer than four and a half years that I have been in this place I have found the operation of parliamentary services, in whichever way our paths cross — whether it be through IT, the electorate properties unit or the myriad other ways that we engage with parliamentary services — to be excellent.
The people in parliamentary services do an extraordinary job when you consider that they have to deal with the requirements of 128 members. The network of electorate offices right across the state is a very large‑scale operation in anyone’s terms.
The final item in the schedule is the appropriation for the Victorian Auditor‑General’s Office, which is very important to not only the Parliament but also the community of Victoria in general. The office has a very long history — almost as long as the history of the Parliament.
Over the years it has evolved from having a purely financial audit function — ensuring that the money allocated has been spent correctly and as it was intended to be spent — to also having a performance audit function. It does very useful work in informing the Parliament and the public about the performance of both the budget sector agencies and outer agencies, now including local government.
Auditors‑general around Australia are now engaged in a further extension of their work, known colloquially, I believe, as ‘follow the dollar’, because we have an extraordinarily complex manner of funding government. Quite often money raised in one jurisdiction is spent in another, and governments of all persuasions and in all jurisdictions rely on both the not‑for‑profit sector and the private sector for service delivery as well as the public sector. It is important, simply because money goes outside the government. If the money pays for the provision of services, clearly that needs to be followed, and we need to be assured that government continues to get value for money.
It is interesting to consider the load that the election of 2010 put on the operation of parliamentary services, with 28 seats having changed hands and some 54 electorate office audits having been undertaken and handovers completed within 20 days of the first declaration of a poll from the election. The responses from the members who were departing and the members who were arriving were overwhelmingly positive — 90 per cent or better in both categories.
There have been considerable improvements in terms of webcasting both sound and vision in this place. The recent Public Accounts and Estimates Committee budget hearings were webcast for the first time. I understand that in the plan for the next 12 months the intention is to extend the opportunity for full webcasting vision and sound to all parliamentary committees when they are engaged in public hearings.
Other members have made comment about some of the publicity that perhaps fortuitously occurred last night and this morning about the fabric of this building. They have made the point, quite rightly, that the project for Parliament House needs to be supported by members on both sides, and the approach taken needs to have bipartisan support.
The budget intends that some $1.225 million will be expended by the Parliament on the stonework restoration project, and I understand another $4 million has been provided by the Department of Treasury and Finance. There is certainly plenty of support. We are in a very old building, and I think all members are aware of the difficulties we have in this building. There are certainly some infrastructure issues, including obsolete infrastructure.
Members have heard about stone falling from the parapets and so on. It is obviously an occupational health and safety issue but when the National Gallery of Victoria is forced to withdraw its artworks from Parliament House because the Parliament can no longer guarantee that they will not be damaged by water, we have surely got to a point where the water penetration issues need to be addressed.
I understand in this year’s program there is an intention to replace the fire detection system, to replace some noncompliant switchboards that still exist around the building, to continue with stage 5 of the stonework restoration and to undertake the scoping of the master plan works. There is work on the front steps. Those who served in opposition in the last Parliament and unfortunately some of those who are serving in opposition now are aware of the issues with water coming in through the front steps into the offices in the far row under the front of the building.
As I said, work will be undertaken for the webcasting of parliamentary committee proceedings. There is also a priority for resourcing the newly adopted Legislative Council committee structure.
The bill is a good measure. Obviously it will keep the Parliament operating for another year, but it will also allow members to fulfil our obligations to the community in a timely and appropriate manner. I commend the bill to the house.
Legislative Assembly 31 May 2011
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