Gary Nairn (Eden-Monaro, Liberal Party, Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

I have never been a member of the Public Works Committee, although in my first years in parliament I would have liked to have been a member of that committee. It has always been a hotly contested committee to be on because it certainly covers a broad cross-section of Commonwealth projects. But I have appeared before that committee on a number of occasions with regard to different projects being proposed throughout my electorate.

In fact, it was the good work of the Public Works Committee that saw the sense of changing a decision—and I will add my one little partisan, churlish aspect to go with the member for Scullin’s—of the previous government on the location of the armaments complex. Rather than being in what was ultimately shown to be a silly location down in Victoria, it was established in Eden, which has proved to be an excellent location for the Navy for the storage of ammunition. It is an excellent project, just one of the many projects that have come along in the 10 years that I have been in this place and been looked at by the Public Works Committee. As he said, its members work extremely well together in looking at projects on behalf of the taxpayer, in looking, from the taxpayer’s point of view, at investment in capital works. Again I thank all members for their contribution to this debate.

The bill certainly makes a number of important amendments to the Public Works Committee Act. The amendments take into account changes in the Commonwealth public works environment since the act was last amended, in 1989, which is quite some time ago for that sort of legislation. The threshold value, as we have heard, will now go from $6 million to $15 million and the amendments will now enable the threshold to be changed by regulation.

The bill amends the definition of a public work to clarify that works funded through public-private partnerships—or PPPs—need to be referred to the committee. The amended definition of a public work also includes works funded through a lease or another similar arrangement. Taken together, these changes update and modernise the Public Works Committee Act, which governs one of the longest-standing committees of the parliament. I note that the changes have received the full support of the committee. I thank the member for Scullin in particular for his comments about the liaison between the committee and the parliamentary secretaries who have had carriage of this. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Ordered that this bill be reported to the House without amendment.

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