Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Seniors) Share this | Hansard source

It is a very sad day when the very essence of the importance of the bill and all the reasons that the mover put forward for the bill have been wiped out and principle has not been upheld. The one part of the bill that remains and is a huge change to the way that the Auditor-General has ever worked gives him a mandate to automatically audit private sector firms, which will place far greater costs upon private sector firms and, particularly for small businesses, inhibit their ability to seek and win government contracts. The business of the Auditor-General and the private sector audit function are totally different in nature. The Auditor-General's power—and he should have the power granted by this bill to audit government business enterprises—has been taken away, leaving us with the ridiculous position where the Auditor-General does not have an automatic right to audit government business enterprises, but he can automatically audit private sector businesses.

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