Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Pocock for the question and for reminding us about sports rorts, the Building Better Regions Fund, commuter car parks, the Urban Congestion Fund, the Safer Communities Fund and the Community Health and Hospitals Program. Do you remember all those funds? Everyone is very quiet over there right now. All of those funds had very negative audits on them, in terms of application and the process of decision-making around them.

In terms of Senator Pocock's question, I think it is incredibly important that the grant guidelines and the Commonwealth grants framework, by which grants are administered, are very clear about the processes for grants, grant applications and decision-making. I think there should be transparency around those decisions. It is currently a function that falls within the Department of Finance. I've been working with my department on looking at ways to strengthen the Commonwealth grants framework, including enhancements to those rules and guidelines, and I'll have more to say about that soon, when that work is complete.

I note that Ms Haines, from the other place, has developed private member's legislation, which we'll take through our processes. The work I'm currently doing at the moment around integrity, around accountability, around probity, and around transparency is looking at the Commonwealth grants framework and the guidelines that are provided to agencies for the administration of grants programs.