Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have a couple of issues I want to pursue with the parliamentary secretary. The first one is just to follow up something he has said from his notes. He said that the development of the Wellington Weir was a major concern to constituents in the Kingston electorate. It is a bigger concern to the constituents of the electorates of Mayo and Barker, let me tell you, yet I accept it is an issue for the member for Kingston as well. There is no decision that has been publicly announced about the Wellington Weir. Has the parliamentary secretary, in saying that it will help secure South Australia’s water supplies, just announced that the federal government has given approval for the Wellington Weir to go ahead? I just seek that clarification and I seek it very seriously.

The second issue I want to raise is in relation to the community cabinets. Can the parliamentary secretary break down how much each one costs? I understand there is a figure in the budget for the overall cost. Is he able to break down how much each community cabinet costs?

The third issue is slightly different. It is in relation to his responsibility in answering questions in relation to the Australian National Audit Office budget. I am a member of the JCPPA and we were very pleased with, and I congratulate the government on, the additional money that was given to the Audit Office to conduct more performance audits this year. However, there is one area they did not get additional funding for, which they did bid for, which was the change in standards going forward for auditors that is going to have quite significant resource implications. I ask: is the government giving serious consideration to this? The Auditor-General in our budget briefing was extraordinarily concerned about this as it will have significant implications for his resourcing. I ask the parliamentary secretary: is the government considering those issues?

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