Mark Bishop (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As everyone knows, this bill has been through the House. The bill was sponsored in the House by the Chair of the JCPAA, Mr Oakeshott. The bill went through the House with the support of Mr Oakeshott. So the matter under discussion, whilst different in the respect identified by Senator Ryan in that it is not entirely consistent with the original recommendation of the JCPAA, has through the negotiation process been agreed to by Mr Oakeshott. It accurately reflects, in addition, the view of the government.

That being the context in which we discuss the amendments moved by Senator Ryan, the question becomes: why does the government hold to that position? The response is very simple and exact, and it is this. Successive governments, both conservative and Labor, have taken the view that the Auditor-General should not have the ability to audit GBEs of his own motion. We say, and I do not think it is seriously challenged, that GBEs are subject to competitive pressures and disciplines that do not apply to other Commonwealth bodies. Medibank, for example, is qualitatively different to the Department of Health and Ageing. So GBEs are subject to competitive pressures and disciplines that do not apply to other Commonwealth bodies and, to the greatest extent possible, we believe—and successive governments have believed—that they should be subject to the same audit arrangements as their competitors. The government considers that audits of GBEs should be requested by the parliament in response to genuine public interest concerns about aspects of their operations rather than as an incidental part of an annual work program.

The JCPAA comprises members from both houses. It comprises members of all parties represented in both houses and it has an independent chair. We consider that to be the appropriate body to consider whether a particular GBE should be audited. But, in that context, Senator Ryan and Senator Xenophon, let me spell it out even more clearly. GBEs operate—