Alan Ferguson (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Pursuant to standing orders 38 and 166, I present documents as listed below which were presented to the President, the Deputy President and Temporary Chairs of Committees since the Senate last sat. In accordance with the terms of the standing orders, the publication of the documents was authorised.

The list read as follows—

Committee Reports

Legal and Constitutional Affairs—Standing Committee—Federal Justice System Amendment (Efficiency Measures) Bill (No. 1) 2008 [Provisions]—

Interim report, dated 17 February 2009. [Received 17 February 2009]

Report, dated February 2009, additional information and submission. [Received 23 February 2009]

Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade—Standing Committee—Defence Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2008 [Provisions]—Report, dated February 2009, additional information and submissions. [Received 20 February 2009]

Economics—Standing Committee—Tax Laws Amendment (Taxation of Financial Arrangements) Bill 2008 [Provisions]—Report, dated February 2009, Hansard record of proceedings and submissions. [Received 26 February 2009]

Economics—Standing Committee—Trade Practices Amendment (Cartel Conduct and Other Measures) Bill 2008 [Provisions]—Report, dated February 2009, Hansard record of proceedings, document presented to the committee, additional information and submissions. [Received 26 February 2009]

Legal and Constitutional Affairs—Standing Committee—Federal Court of Australia Amendment (Criminal Jurisdiction) Bill 2008 [Provisions]—Interim report, dated 26 February 2009. [Received 26 February 2009]

Legal and Constitutional Affairs—Standing Committee—Disability Discrimination and Other Human Rights Legislation Amendment Bill 2008 [Provisions]—Report, dated February 2009, Hansard record of proceedings, additional information and submissions. [Received 26 February 2009]

Education, Employment and Workplace Relations—Standing Committee—Fair Work Bill 2008 [Provisions]—Report, dated February 2009, Hansard record of proceedings, documents presented to the committee and submissions. [Received 27 February 2009]

Economics—Standing Committee—Federal Financial Relations Bill 2009 [Provisions] and Federal Financial Relations (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2009 [Provisions]—Report, dated February 2009 and submission. [Received 27 February 2009]

Legal and Constitutional Affairs—Standing Committee—Interim report—Foreign Evidence Amendment Bill 2008, Federal Court of Australia Amendment (Criminal Jurisdiction) Bill 2008 and exposure draft of the Personal Property Securities Bill 2008, dated 4 March 2009. [Received 4 March 2009]

Finance and Public Administration—Standing Committee—Report—Transparency and accountability of Commonwealth public funding and expenditure—Government interim response, dated 6 April 2008. [Received 23 February 2009]

Government Documents

Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism—Report for the period 3 December 2007 to 30 June 2008—Addendum (Geoscience Australia financial statements). [Received 13 February 2009]

Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts—Energy use in the Australian Government’s operations—Report for 2006-07. [Received 5 March 2009]

Estimates of proposed supplementary additional expenditure for 2008-09—Portfolio supplementary additional estimates statements no. 2—Portfolios and executive departments—

Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry portfolio. [Received 2 March 2009]

Defence portfolio (Department of Veterans’ Affairs). [Received 2 March 2009]

Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts portfolio. [Received 2 March 2009]

Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs portfolio. [Received 2 March 2009]

Foreign Affairs and Trade portfolio. [Received 2 March 2009]

Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government portfolio. [Received 2 March 2009]

Treasury portfolio. [Received 2 March 2009]

National Environment Protection Council (NEPC)—Report for 2007-08. [Received 13 February 2009]

Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee—Report—Regional telecommunications review: Framework for the future—Government response, March 2009. [Received 5 March 2009]

Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979Report for 2007-08 on the operation of the Act. [Received 13 February 2009]

Auditor-General—Audit Reports Nos 22 and 24 of 2008-09—Documents

Auditor-General—Audit reports for 2008-09—

No. 22—Performance audit—Centrelink’s complaints handling system—Centrelink. [Received 17 February 2009]

No. 24—Performance audit—The administration of contracting arrangements in relation to Government advertising to November 2007—Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet; Department of Finance and Deregulation; Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations; Department of Health and Ageing; Attorney-General’s Department. [Received 5 March 2009]

Indexed Lists of Departmental and Agency Files—Order for Production of Documents—Documents

Indexed lists of departmental and agency files for the period 1 July to 31 December 2008—Statements of compliance—

Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry portfolio agencies. [Received 17 February 2009]

Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy. [Received 3 March 2009]

Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. [Received 27 February 2009]

Health and Ageing portfolio agencies. [Received 24 February 2009]

Innovation, Industry, Science and Research portfolio agencies. [Received 26 February 2009]

Departmental and Agency Contracts—Order for Production of Documents—Documents

Departmental and agency contracts for 2008—Letters of advice—

Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry portfolio agencies. [Received 23 February 2009]

Attorney-General’s portfolio agencies. [Received 3 March 2009]

Department of Defence and Defence Materiel Organisation. [Received 2 March 2009]

Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. [Received 18 February 2009]

Department of Veterans’ Affairs. [Received 2 March 2009]

Education, Employment and Workplace Relations portfolio agencies. [Received 6 March 2009]

Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs portfolio agencies. [Received 6 March 2009]

Finance and Deregulation portfolio agencies. [Received 26 February 2009]

Foreign Affairs and Trade portfolio agencies. [Received 24 February 2009]

Health and Ageing portfolio agencies. [Received 24 February 2009]

Human Services portfolio agencies. [Received 27 February 2009]

Innovation, Industry, Science and Research portfolio agencies. [Received 27 February 2009]

Prime Minister and Cabinet portfolio agencies. [Received 26 February 2009]

Resources, Energy and Tourism portfolio agencies. [Received 2 March 2009]

Treasury portfolio agencies [3]. [Received 25 February 2009]

Departmental and Agency Appointments—Order for Production of Documents—Document

Departmental and agency appointments—Additional budget estimates—Letter of advice—Immigration and Citizenship portfolio agencies. [Received 17 February 2009]

Departmental and Agency Grants—Order for Production of Documents—Document

Departmental and agency appointments—Additional budget estimates—Letter of advice—Immigration and Citizenship portfolio agencies. [Received 17 February 2009]

Ordered that the committee reports be printed.

In accordance with the usual practice and with the concurrence of the Senate, the government response will be incorporated in Hansard.

The document read as follows—

THE HON LINDSAY TANNER MP

Minister for Finance and Deregulation

Member for Melbourne

Senator Helen Polley

Chair

Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee

Parliament House

CANBERRA ACT 2600

Dear Senator Polley

I am writing to provide an interim response to the Committee’s report (Transparency and Accountability of Commonwealth Public Funding and Expenditure, March 2007).

The Committee made a number of recommendations that are consistent with the reforms I have announced under the banner of Operation Sunlight and which the Government has already begun to implement. I have also announced, on 24 March 2008, that Senator Andrew Murray is to review and provide advice on options to further improve budget transparency.

Senator Murray has been asked to conduct his review and provide advice to me before 30 June 2008, The advice will take into account the initiatives covered under Operation Sunlight as well as the findings and recommendations of your Committee’s report.

I believe it is important to receive Senator Murray’s advice prior to finalising a formal response to your Committee’s report.

As an interim measure, however, I would like to advise you of efforts under the first phase of Operation Sunlight which the Government has either implemented or will be implementing in 2008 that are consistent with a number of the recommendations of your Committee’s report:

(a)

for the first time since the 1999-2000 statements, the Consolidated Financial Statements released by me on 20 December 2007 have recognised the GST as a Commonwealth tax (recommendation 7);

(b)

improvements to the transparency of agency Portfolio Budget Statements and the Budget Papers are planned for the forthcoming Budget (recommendations 1, 3, 5 and 11)

(i)

as I advised you in my letter of 10 March 2008, agency Portfolio Budget Statements have been redesigned to include a resource statement, outlining all of the resources available to the agency, as well as a more consistent approach across agencies to the structure and presentation of their information, and

(ii)

Budget Paper 4 (relating to Agency Resources) will be simplified and clarity improved through the introduction of new tables on special appropriations and the removal of repetitive information;

(c)

I and my Department (Finance) will have a stronger role in vetting outcomes, and Finance, in consultation with agencies, will be reviewing all outcomes by the end of 2008 (recommendation 12); and

(d)

Finance will work with the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to finalise the Annual Reporting guidance for 2007-08, setting out improved reporting and transparency of appropriations (recommendation 3), and will be making further changes in 2008-09 to reflect the improvements being introduced through the 2008-09 Portfolio Budget. Statements.

The Government is committed to increasing the standards of transparency under Operation Sunlight and I consider that the initiatives outlined above represent a practical and first step forward.

My intention is to present a further and full response to the Committee report in the second half of 2008, addressing the report recommendations and the manner in which the Government is responding to their aims.

Yours sincerely

(signed)

Lindsay Tanner

06 APR 2008