Report on the 2021‒22 and 2022‒23 Financial and Performance Outcomes
Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (10:37): I am pleased to follow the chair of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee. I cannot believe she did not speak on one of her own reports, but I will. I will be speaking on the Report on the 2021–22 and 2022–23 Financial and Performance Outcomes. While it is directly relevant to those two financial years, I want to speak more broadly about the concerning trend that I have seen over, sadly, 10 years on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee –
A member: You’re a veteran!
Danny O’BRIEN: I should be getting long service leave, shouldn’t I – the concerning trend that I have seen of public servants refusing to provide information to the Parliament that should be provided to the Parliament and the people of Victoria. The most recent example I will reference here concerns Mr Puglielli in the other place, who in the most recent hearings asked a question of the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions, specifically how much money had been committed to the operation of a particular trade and investment office overseas. The response came in the hearings: ‘I do not have that figure at hand at the moment; we will take it on notice.’ The answer given on notice was:
The 2024–25 State Budget provided $7.3 million over 2 years to maintain trade and investment facilities and services, including the Victorian Government Trade and Investment … Network of 23 offices …
It did not answer the question that was asked, so the committee, led by Mr Puglielli, quite rightly said, ‘No, we should write back. We asked a specific question,’ and it did that. The department secretary Mr Tim Ada came back with – I kid you not – the exact same words as had previously been provided in the question on notice. That I was completely appalled by, as was Mr Puglielli of course. There was some discussion in the committee – and I will not go into that of course – and the committee wrote back again and said, ‘Mr Secretary, you either tell us this information or you tell us why you can’t provide this information,’ because there was no explanation as to why it could not be disaggregated. And lo and behold, surprise, surprise, yesterday we actually got a response that does give us the information that was asked for – that the office in question has an annual budget of up to approximately $428,000.
I raise this because it is absolutely unconscionable that public servants when asked a question by members of Parliament in the budget estimates process cannot provide a straight answer, and we have seen this time and time again throughout the process. It is one thing for a department to say, ‘I’m sorry, that figure is not available; it’s not disaggregated in that way,’ but to say, ‘I’ll take it on notice,’ and then not go ahead and do so or to simply provide a generic answer – and this has happened before.
This has been a bit of a hobby horse of mine. The government loudly proclaimed its commitment to bringing the Foo Fighters to Geelong two years ago, which is relevant to the committee report that I am referring to, and I asked at the time:
Secretary … Can you tell me how much money the government provided to put on the Foo Fighters concert at Geelong …
Mr Phemister, the then secretary, said:
I can certainly get that for you, Mr O’Brien, if I have it at hand.
He then went further and said:
… no, sorry. I will have to take that question on notice …
But what happened? They took it on notice but did not provide an answer. Indeed, in responding for the third time after refusing to give us an answer the second time, the department said:
The entity responsible for the Always Live event is Always Live Limited.
It:
… is an independently operated company limited by guarantee. It enters into contracts directly with promoters … The Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions –
at the time –
… does not hold information about those arrangements.
Yet we had a media release from the minister at the time that referred to the Foo Fighters concert as:
… part of the Labor Government’s ALWAYS LIVE program.
Indeed just this morning the Premier has put out a press release, again announcing:
The Allan Labor Government is bringing ALWAYS LIVE back for 2024 …
Yet when we ask the department how much money was given by ALWAYS LIVE to Foo Fighters or any of the others – Billy Joel and many others that have been through – the government will not tell us. We can have a debate as to whether that spending was good value for taxpayers, but we cannot have a debate if the government hides behind these bureaucrats who refuse to give Parliament the information that we and the Victorian people deserve to see.