Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor will be supporting the Public Governance and Resources Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2017, which makes technical amendments to 13 acts. This will harmonise those acts with the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013—the PGPA Act—and the Commonwealth's broader resource management framework.

Labor supports these technical amendments that will consistently prescribe listed entities, correct references to the old pieces of financial management legislation, repeal provisions in a number of acts for issues that are now covered by the PGPA Act such as the disclosure of interest and annual reporting requirements and make minor amendments to legislation consequential to the sale of Medibank Private Limited in 2014.

Labor in government undertook significant reforms to the Commonwealth financial management arrangements. This included the commencement of the Public Management Reform Agenda back in 2010. Labor's reforms also included the introduction of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013. That act replaced the bifurcated model of Commonwealth financial management. It replaced the old Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997 and the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997.

Our reforms have established the framework needed for a modern public sector. These reforms are based on a number of key principles, including: (1) government should operate as a coherent whole; (2) a common set of duties should apply to all public resources handled by Commonwealth entities—these should be managed prudently and efficiently; (3) performance of the public sector is more than financial; and (4) engaging with risk is a necessary step in improving performance.

We support this bill because the changes it makes are broadly consistent with these principles, but we do have some concerns with the way the government has managed our public resources and public governance arrangements. This government has made a mess of the budget. The AAA credit rating is at risk. The deficit for this year is 10 times bigger than in the Liberals' first budget. Gross debt is around half a trillion dollars for the first time ever, an amount the Assistant Minister to the Treasurer described as 'a truckload of debt' and 'an absolutely extraordinary amount of debt'—to quote him. Last week the government inappropriately wasted $122 million on a postal survey. It was astonishing to hear the Treasurer say that spending $122 million on a divisive, harmful and non-binding opinion poll is money well spent.

The PGPA Act provided more flexible arrangements for entities and relied on the management of a number of subordinate rules and regulations. Officials are expected to be held to a high standard of accountability, and yet we have recently seen Australia Post and other agencies act to hide the remuneration of their senior executives. This was enabled by changes to the reporting rules made by the Minister for Finance, Senator Cormann. This bill does not fix that problem. The government has informally requested a number of Commonwealth entities to revert to the previous regime of remuneration reporting. The Auditor-General considered:

There would be benefit in … making the aggregate level of transparency for key management … remuneration in the public sector consistent with that required for listed entities.

We welcomed the release of those reports at the Minister for Finance's request. However, the government should act to ensure that these are formally required of all Commonwealth entities, and it has not acted on this.

To confirm: we will be supporting this bill, but we do have concerns with the way the government has managed our public resources and financial governance, and our support for this bill should not be taken to suggest otherwise.

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Firstly, I'd like to thank those senators who have contributed to this debate. I commend the Public Governance and Resources Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2017 to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.