Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I present the government's response to the report of the Economics Legislation Committee on its examination of annual reports tabled by 30 April 2010 and seek leave to have the document incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The document read as follows—

Australian Government response to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee report:

Annual Reports No. 2 of 2010

March 2023

Response to the Committee's Recommendation

Recommendation 1

1.35 The committee recommends that the government, in consultation with the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit, amend the annual reporting requirements for government entities to provide for more systematic reporting in relation to external scrutiny, including for parliamentary committee inquiries and reports, in line with sections B.2 and B.3 of the ACT Chief Minister's 2007-2010 Annual Report Directions.

The Australian Government supports and has implemented this recommendation.

The recommendation has been implemented through the introduction of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act) and the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Rule 2014 (PGPA Rule), which saw the inclusion of all annual report requirements captured within the same legislation.

The PGPA Act (sections 46 and 97) introduced enhanced requirements for external scrutiny of entity activities. These sections, along with the PGPA Rule, provide an integrated and consistent set of annual report requirements for all Commonwealth entities.

The PGPA Act sets out obligations relating to the planning for resource use and mandates the reporting on how effectively those resources have been applied. The Act standardises the reporting deadline.

The Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit (the Committee) has an active general oversight role regarding the PGPA Act and Rule and has played an ongoing role since its inception. The Committee reviews the rules under the PGPA Act where matters are significant and has a specific role in approving any changes to the annual report rule for Commonwealth entities under Section 46 of the Act.