Chadwick Steve: Offices of Parliament Address to Governor-General 
Chadwick Steve: Offices of Parliament Address to Governor-General 
[Volume:662;Page:10461] 
Hon STEVE CHADWICK (Labour) 
: 
 I rise to speak on the draft budgets for Officers of Parliament. The Officers of Parliament Committee is a very important committee of Parliament as the Leader of the House pointed out. All parties act as the executive on this committee and undertake the scrutiny of some very important votes: Vote Audit Vote Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment and Vote Ombudsmen. I do not think many people know about the Officers of Parliament Committee in terms of parliamentary function but I have found it a very important committee for the enactment of those different votes. 
As the Leader of the House said the Officers of Parliament Committee looked at Vote Audit. The Office of the Controller and Auditor-General has asked for another $500000 which would still be subject to approval. The increase in this vote was because the office is revenue-dependent. Its costs are fully funded back and have been since 2007. It has incurred some increased additional costs because it audited long-term council community plans—a very important role which it has finished. 
Another reason the office asked for the extra $500000 is that there is pressure on its capital requirements. It has an extra 90 staff because of the audit functions that we have put on this vote. Over 6 years there has been quite an increase in work. It also flagged to us that it is looking for alternative premises which is something that in the future we will examine in terms of this vote. The department is managing—well the Office of the Controller and Auditor-General is not really a department—on some quite outdated systems. There is an old document management system that has been going for 8 years and a 10-year-old management system which also needs to be upgraded. So we listened to all of that information which was put to us very convincingly. We were aware of the very financially constrained times last year and we are aware of some pressures going forward. 
The Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment is a very small office with a small number of staff and it is a vote of only $2.7 million. Staff assured us that they are going through the same line-by-line value-for-money approach that we thought was very important. They found lots of efficiencies as they carry out the functions they mentioned. They have outsourced their library services. They have really felt the squeeze but they have gone to an open-plan system in their offices which was impressive. 
The Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has a very important role in terms of measuring the health of our environment and reporting back to Parliament. It also had to report on the new Environmental Protection Authority which I think the Officers of Parliament Committee will monitor in the future. It has looked at a strategic approach to biofuel production. It has done a lot of work and we commend it for its work. It has a small number of staff but it manages to meet those requirements. 
The last vote that we looked at was Vote Ombudsmen. The Office of the Ombudsmen is an interesting office that is under considerable pressure. It talked about 1928 complaints that have not yet been assigned. That is a growing sign of pressure on the Office of the Ombudsmen. There has been a 22 percent increase in demand for its services and the office feels it needs to be responding to this increase. 
I think it was very interesting that Sir Guy Powles who recommended setting up the Office of the Ombudsmen said: “The Ombudsman is Parliament’s man put there for the protection of the individual and if you protect the individual you protect society.” The Office of the Ombudsmen takes that role very seriously. It was concerned about its unassigned cases and it asked for one more investigating officer. 
It was also very interesting for the committee to know that the Office of the Ombudsmen is now reporting on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which was an additional compliance cost it had to meet. We took that into account in the draft budget that we put before the Minister of Finance in the House today. I am proud the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was signed by the previous Labour Government in 2008. 
Members of the Officers of Parliament Committee worked in a consensual way under your leadership Mr Speaker as the chair of the committee. It is an enjoyable committee. We take the role very seriously. I believe that all of us agree that the budget pressures on all these votes need to be taken seriously and I believe we responded seriously to their requests.