Tony Windsor (New England, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I second the words of the previous speaker in endorsing the work of the committee secretariat in relation to this particular issue. I was seconded to this committee for this particular inquiry. I think a few members have alluded to my interest in this particular issue and the way it should be done into the future. I congratulate the government, in that there was recognition of the Audit Office report on the previous government. There was no doubt that there were absolute and shocking abuses of process in terms of the way funding was allocated to various organisations. I might spend some time on that in a minute.

I think the main focus of this report was to put in place something that would work for the future. This document is not perfect, and what the government is doing so far is not perfect; but it is better than what was in place before. Time will judge its capacity to deliver. One of the important things that it has delivered so far is a degree of fairness to the process that was not there before. It was that unfairness in the previous Regional Partnerships arrangements that shone through when we had an application process that was open to all and a determination process that was not open to all. The Audit Office noted in a quite scathing report that there were many cases where there was abuse of process or the process was not even entered into. Almost by definition, that is unfair to those community groups and local government groups et cetera that applied thinking they would be assessed fairly against other organisations and bodies. I think what the government has done since is an improvement on that, in that the process of assessment is fairer. That is not suggesting that it cannot be politicised like the other program was. I would hope that it is not. I think the Financial Management and Accountability Act amendments are being looked at by the minister for Finance, but I think they have to be improved more than what is being done there.

One of the problems with the previous arrangements was that, if the minister—and you cannot take away discretion from the minister—or the government of the day determined that a particular program should get funding and did not adhere to the guidelines, quite obviously that is a breach of the Financial Management and Accountability Act. There were instances where people did not even fill out application forms and were still issued with funds. What happens when a minister does that? Virtually nothing. The Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Lindsay Tanner, has looked at that issue and has in fact made some changes; there will be a process but there are no penalties.

I find it quite interesting that last week we were debating—and we will waste time on this again this afternoon—who has done favours for whom on the back of this utility that is driving around Brisbane somewhere. The Audit Office report into the Regional Partnerships arrangements was essentially on that very issue: who was doing favours for whom inside a process that had various processes within it which, in a lot of cases, were being ignored. That is why this particular report was put together—to find a way forward which was better. In my view, what is better about this report is that it does involve local government. I am pleased to see here today a practitioner of local government, the Mayor of Gunnedah. He is one of the youngest mayors in Australia and, I might say, a very good one. I might add that he is not in my electorate, so I say that without displaying any favours towards him—but I do welcome him to this building.

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