Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thought I would take the opportunity to give the member for Wills some response on the matters he raised in his contribution a few minutes ago and to thank the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister for his detailed response on the National Water Initiative. To the member for Wills: obviously the Council of Australian Governments’ agenda is enormous. I can say that, in the primary role I have in the government as the Minister for Vocational and Technical Education, we are looking forward to the detailed work that is going to come out of this Council of Australian Governments deliberation in the area of occupational licensing and skills matters alone. The matter within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, with an additional vote of resources to handle the coordination of that, therefore, is a substantial and good investment in the way Australia needs to gear itself for the rest of the 21st century. We are undoing, rebadging and indeed re-establishing some 19th century concepts that have worked well through the 20th century but need to work far better when it comes to Australia’s skills base. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet are very much at the heart of those tasks.

Equally, on the funding for the task force to deal with the APEC conference, there are certain broad assumptions that have been used in a lot of these items. After all, APEC is going to be the largest meeting of its kind ever to occur in Australia so there are no benchmarks for us to refer to. There was some underspending in the previous year and there has been some refocussing this year. The budget was developed in January last year, ahead of some significant planning for the event. The underspending of $18.8 million was due to difficulties in estimating in advance the expenses required for this project, including the expenses by year. These uncertainties caused the Department of Finance and Administration to provide on a no-win no-loss arrangement for the quadrating of this funding in its provision as it is required. In that regard we have the flexibility to respond to that.

From a staffing point of view, the department’s average staff for 2006-07 is expected to increase, by 89, to 564. The increase in staff is in response to supporting the COAG agenda—as I said, substantial and important work for Australia’s future. This government has its eye on where Australian needs to be 20 and 30 years from now. It is not just dealing with where we have been over the last 20 or 30 years. The investment in an additional 30 staff for the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet is a very good investment indeed. Recruiting for the APEC task force will require some 59 people, and that is continued recruiting that is taking place.

With regard to the additional auditing that the member outlined in his earlier question, I am happy to seek some further advice on that. At the end of it, the general principles always stand. The Department of Defence has a massive expenditure of public moneys. It is very much involved in an important task in a lot of different places at the moment. PM&C want to offer additional resources to make certain that the real task of defending and advancing Australia’s interests overseas is the primary work of Defence. At the same time, ensuring that we can report to the people of Australia the correct expenditure of those moneys means that it is not just up to Defence alone; it is up to PM&C to play its central coordinating role.

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