Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in favour of the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Amendment Bill 2008. The bill primarily amends the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997, commonly known as the CAC Act, to improve the transparency, governance and accountability arrangements for Commonwealth authorities and Commonwealth companies. The bill also contains a small number of consequential amendments to the Legislative Instruments Act 2003, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983, the Australian Industry Development Corporation Act 1970, the Australian National University Act 1991 and the Special Broadcasting Service Act 1991. The proposed amendments to the CAC Act represent the most significant and much-needed update since the CAC Act commenced on 1 January 1998.

The amendments will improve the efficiency and transparency as to how directors of Commonwealth authorities and wholly owned Commonwealth companies are notified of the general policies of the Australian government that apply to their body. After a responsible minister consults with these directors on proposed general policies that are to apply to their body, the finance minister may issue general policy orders that will be published on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments. These new arrangements will improve the transparency to the parliament and the public of the application of general policies of government to these bodies.

Other significant amendments in this bill will improve the alignment of provisions in the CAC Act with the equivalent arrangements in the Corporations Act 2001 in areas of offences, penalties, reporting and terminology. The proposed amendments will, for example, insert new offences and amend a number of penalty clauses, including introducing new civil penalty provisions to align the CAC Act with similar provisions in the Corporations Act. The proposed amendments will also improve the accountability of Commonwealth companies by requiring annual reports to be prepared in line with the requirements for public companies under the Corporations Act. Additionally, the bill strengthens the test for determining when the Commonwealth controls a company, by employing terminology used in the Corporations Act for determining when a company is a subsidiary. For wholly owned Commonwealth companies the amendments in the bill will also allow the finance minister to require additional information, through the finance minister’s orders, to ensure annual reports contain appropriate disclosure on public sector governance and risk management issues.

Other proposed amendments relate to the responsibility for providing ministers with the financial statements and audit reports of subsidiaries of CAC Act bodies. The amendments in this bill implement an Auditor-General’s request to the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit for the directors of the relevant CAC Act body to submit the reports of subsidiaries to responsible ministers, rather than the responsibility being with the Auditor-General, as is currently the case. Finally, this bill will provide the Commonwealth authorities with greater clarity about their ability to purchase goods and services by the use of credit cards, where they do not currently have express power to borrow. Importantly, the bill introduces a related criminal penalty associated with the misuse of credit cards for all Commonwealth authorities, including those whose enabling legislation already provides an express power to borrow. Overall, the amendments improve the transparency, accountability and governance arrangements for authorities and companies under the CAC Act. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Ordered that this bill be reported to the House without amendment.