Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit, I present Report 501:Annual Report 2022-23 and a corrigendum to Report 500: Inquiry into procurement at Services Australia and the NDIAInterim Report.

Reports made parliamentary papers in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—The Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit is required under the Public Accounts and Audit Committee Act 1951 and other relevant legislation to report annually to the parliament on the work it has undertaken. The committee's work includes reviews of the Australian National Audit Office reports, audit priorities of the parliament and recommendations to the government on the budget estimates for the Australian National Audit Office and the Parliamentary Budget Office.

In 2022-23, the committee met 29 times and held 18 public hearings. The committee commenced eight inquiries and presented five reports as well as undertook a range of other non-inquiry activities pursuant to its statutory duties. The committee's inquiries in 2022-23 included Foreign Affairs and Trade's crisis management arrangements, administration of Commonwealth grants, the 2021-22 Commonwealth financial statements, Defence's major projects reports covering two years, Commonwealth procurement and a special inquiry focusing on procurement irregularities at Services Australia and the NDIA.

I'd like to thank all members who were members of the committee in 2022-23 in this place and the other place for the spirit in which they approached the committee's work and their dedication to its scrutiny function. The committee has a longstanding tradition of operating in a nonpartisan manner, which I can say overwhelmingly we observe. There's the occasional outbreak in a public hearing. The Deputy Chair and I occasionally yell at each other and then smile and move on, so I would like to thank Senator the Hon Linda Reynolds CSC for her collegiate approach as deputy chair and her nerdy attention to audit matters, which I greatly respect.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That's the pot calling the kettle black!

Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We're a good team, member for Fisher.

Nerdy is a compliment in my world. It's a compliment!

I've got repertoire, as you well know. I'd also like to thank the secretariat for its professionalism in supporting the work of the committee. They deserve lashings of praise for the outstanding quality of the work they do and their professionalism—that's lashings in the Enid Blyton sense, member for Fisher!—and that includes the excellent staff of the Department of the House of Representatives as well as the secondees from the Australian National Audit Office. I commend the report to the House.

Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Bruce?

Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm sorry. The Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs is very distracting! By leave—I present executive minutes on reports Nos. 479, 494 and 498 of the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit. Mercifully, I don't seek leave to make a statement regarding them!