Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Public Governance and Resources Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2015. This bill is another stage in the financial framework reform process that Labor commenced when in government. We initiated a review process, the Commonwealth Financial Accountability Review, which involved two years of detailed consultation and consideration of issues. This culminated in the development and passage of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013. The new legislation, which replaced the old Financial Management and Accountability Act and the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act, established an integrated financial management framework for entities within the Commonwealth. The concept was to design an appropriate framework that would improve the performance, accountability and risk management across government.

The 44th Parliament has dealt with a number of pieces of legislation relating to the implementation of the framework governed by the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 which Labor has supported. The bill before the Senate today continues the reform process we put in place to ensure the continual effective operation of the financial framework. This bill may be the first in a series of bills that may be introduced and developed in the future that would continue to improve the financial framework arrangements. This would be similar to the series of financial framework legislation amendment bills that Labor put through the parliament when we were in government to deal with similar issues to the previous financial framework legislation.

The vast majority of the amendments contained in this bill are housekeeping items of a technical nature and are uncontroversial. Some of the proposed changes that are in this bill relate to the amendments that were unable to be made at the time of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act when it took effect on 1 July 2014. This was for various reasons. As a result of further consultation with relevant entities, these amendments can now be made to the relevant legislation to ensure that they interact properly with the new financial framework.

I will go briefly through the contents of the bill. Schedule 1 of the bill amends sections of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 which relate to definitions, corporate plans, arrangements for GST and streamlining the administration of transfer of functions between non-corporate Commonwealth entities. These amendments ensure a continuation of the arrangements that were in place under the previous financial framework, as well as providing sufficient flexibility in relation to corporate plans.

Schedule 2 of the bill amends sections of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Act 2014 which relate to reporting periods, Commonwealth repayments and other items which ensure the improved operation of the financial legislation.

I will return to schedule 3. Schedule 4 of the bill ensures that the Clean Energy Regulator and the Climate Change Authority are listed entities for the purpose of the new financial framework. These are sensible and necessary amendments to make.

Schedule 5 of the bill amends 22 acts, including the Australian National Registry of Emissions Units Act 2011, the Financial Framework (Supplementary Powers) Act 1997 and the National Land Transport Act 2014, to align and harmonise them with the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act to ensure there is consistency with the new financial framework. These amendments do not change any of the policies or statutory functions contained in the legislation that is sought to be amended.

Schedule 6 of the bill makes amendments to a series of acts which are, in the main, minor, technical in nature and uncontroversial, such as amendments to the Reserve Bank Act, the Industrial Chemicals (Notification and Assessment) Act, the Future Fund Act and the Health Insurance Act. There are also amendments to the Air Services Act, which will provide Airservices Australia with an increased ability to manage foreign currency risk effectively—that is, by managing foreign currency exposure on operating expenses including insurance premiums and technical support services worth around $5 million to $15 million per annum. Similar statutory powers to manage foreign currency risk already reside with the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation, the Reserve Bank and Australia Post.

Schedule 6 also includes amendments to the Australian Trade Commission Act relating to the inclusion of domestic tourism as part of the Austrade chief executive officer's function. The shadow minister for tourism, Mr Albanese, the member for Grayndler in the other place, made some substantial remarks in relation to this amendment. He is a passionate champion of tourism. Schedule 7 of the bill relates to transitional provisions relating to legislative instruments and transitional rules that the Minister for Finance can make. Again, these are uncontroversial.

Labor ensured this bill was referred to the Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee to give us assurance that there were no issues with the legislation before us today. In particular, sections of the bill that we sought assurance on included schedule 3, which relates to the removal of body corporate status from the Clean Energy Regulator and the Climate Change Authority. Page 4 of the committee's report said:

In its submission the Clean Energy Regulator stated that it had been consulted on the proposed amendments to its enabling legislation and 'fully supports them'.

The proposed amendments in schedule 6, relating to the Auditor-General Act, would expand the current exemptions to disclosing information on proposed audit reports to drafts, extracts of proposed reports and any other reports, including drafts, which are created for the purpose of preparing a proposed audit report. The current exemption means that, unless the Auditor-General's permission is granted, people who have been provided with a proposed audit report for comment cannot provide it to others. There is a two-year imprisonment penalty attached to this unauthorised disclosure. The amendment in this bill would also extend the imprisonment penalty to the unauthorised disclosure of the drafts and other extracts that I described earlier. We just want to make sure that there are no issues with these provisions of the bill. The recommendation of the Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee was that the Senate pass the bill.

I note that this bill was debated in the other place in the week that the most recent so-called 'repeal day' was scheduled. I remind the House of the situation the last time the parliament dealt with legislation relating to public governance, when Labor successfully moved amendments to save the Commonwealth Cleaning Services Guidelines only to see them abolished in another way 24 hours later. The same government that gave $1.1 billion in new tax breaks back to multinationals cut the pay of the cleaners who clean their offices by $2 an hour. That is an amount that is probably not much to those of us who enjoy the job of representing our constituents in this place, but I can assure honourable senators that losing $2 an hour causes considerable pain to those who work as cleaners. The deception perpetrated by this government on this issue was deplorable. The lowest paid people in parliament suffering the biggest cuts—it is just crazy. It is ideology gone mad and it is not a proper policy position to be adopted. But that is what the coalition has done. That is what this government is about—look after the big end of town and then the bottom end can look after itself. That is why we were presented with a budget that targets the lowest paid in this country—a budget that targets those who cannot look after themselves, a budget that is about unfairness and a budget that has been rejected by the population of this country. I think it epitomises the ideology of this government when it can take $2 an hour from a cleaner and give billions of dollars back to its mates at the big end of town.

Notwithstanding that, Labor understands the necessity of a well-functioning financial framework. We are providing our support for this bill, as it is necessary for the continual improvement of the financial framework and is a further aspect of the reform process that we put in place when we were in government. I just wish it had not been used to attack some of the poorest and weakest people in this parliament.

Scott Ryan (Victoria, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will not bother engaging with Senator Cameron's sledging other than to commend the bill to the Senate.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the bill be now read a second time.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.