Mr MILLS - 2007-08-29
Of the hospitality, travel and credit card expenditure mentioned by the Auditor-General, are you in a position to tell the parliament how much the questionable transactions amounted to, and can you give this House a breakdown of the money that was spent?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, that is the most bizarre question I have ever heard. I have just gone through the answer in the Auditor-General’s own words. There is no agency mentioned. There are no figures against any of the items mentioned. It is a general theme, a trend, an observation that the Auditor-General has made.
Had he named an agency, had he named a particular area, had he quantified an amount against it, there would have been a response from the responsible agency in the Auditor-General’s report. The Auditor-General does not go around dropping bombshells and ambushes, such as the member for Blain suggests. It is a general theme that he has observed. He has undertaken to get right into this over the next few months. I made the commitment just six minutes ago that I would meet with Treasury and with the Auditor-General to seek a little more detail about this. There is no detail in the Auditor-General’s report, and this goose says: ‘Tell me the agencies, tell me the amounts, and what are you doing about it’. You are a goose.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Written Question Paper.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, that is the most bizarre question I have ever heard. I have just gone through the answer in the Auditor-General’s own words. There is no agency mentioned. There are no figures against any of the items mentioned. It is a general theme, a trend, an observation that the Auditor-General has made.
Had he named an agency, had he named a particular area, had he quantified an amount against it, there would have been a response from the responsible agency in the Auditor-General’s report. The Auditor-General does not go around dropping bombshells and ambushes, such as the member for Blain suggests. It is a general theme that he has observed. He has undertaken to get right into this over the next few months. I made the commitment just six minutes ago that I would meet with Treasury and with the Auditor-General to seek a little more detail about this. There is no detail in the Auditor-General’s report, and this goose says: ‘Tell me the agencies, tell me the amounts, and what are you doing about it’. You are a goose.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Written Question Paper.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016