David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs, upon notice, on 22 September 2011:

What was:

  (a) the department's total expenditure for the 2010-11 financial year on:

     (i) information and computer technology,

     (ii) consultancies,

     (iii) external accounting,

     (iv) external auditing,

     (v) external legal services, and

     (vi) membership and grants paid to affiliate organisations; and

  (b) for each category in (a), what was the program breakdown of this expenditure.

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Foreign Affairs has provided the following answer the honourable senator's question:

Total expenditure for 2010-11 in each of the requested categories is detailed below:

  (a)   (i) Refer 2010-11 Annual Report,Section 5, page 284.

     (ii) Refer 2010-11 Annual Report,Section 4, Appendix 12 – Consultancy services, page 232.

     (iii) External accounting: $0.056 million.

     (iv) External auditing expense: $0.467 million. Of this $0.45 million relates to a notional charge for the annual audit conducted by the Australian National Audit Office. This is reported in the Financial Statements at Note 12 within the 2010-11 Annual Report (Resources received free of charge).

     (v) External legal services: $3.080 million.

     (vi) Refer 2010-11 Annual Report,Section 4, Appendix 11 – Grants and contributions, page 229.

The department does not itemise expenditure at the level of detail sought. To fully report expenditure at the level of detail asked would require a significant diversion of resources and I do not consider the additional work can be justified.