David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs, upon notice, on 22 September 2011:

What was:

  (a) the department's total expenditure for the 2010-11 financial year on:

     (i) information and computer technology,

     (ii) consultancies,

     (iii) external accounting,

     (iv) external auditing,

     (v) external legal services, and

     (vi) membership and grants paid to affiliate organisations; and

  (b) for each category in (a), what was the program breakdown of this expenditure.

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Foreign Affairs has provided the following answer the honourable senator's question:

Total expenditure for 2010-11 in each of the requested categories is detailed below:

  (a)   (i) Refer 2010-11 Annual Report,Section 5, page 284.

     (ii) Refer 2010-11 Annual Report,Section 4, Appendix 12 – Consultancy services, page 232.

     (iii) External accounting: $0.056 million.

     (iv) External auditing expense: $0.467 million. Of this $0.45 million relates to a notional charge for the annual audit conducted by the Australian National Audit Office. This is reported in the Financial Statements at Note 12 within the 2010-11 Annual Report (Resources received free of charge).

     (v) External legal services: $3.080 million.

     (vi) Refer 2010-11 Annual Report,Section 4, Appendix 11 – Grants and contributions, page 229.

The department does not itemise expenditure at the level of detail sought. To fully report expenditure at the level of detail asked would require a significant diversion of resources and I do not consider the additional work can be justified.