Wednesday, 4 October 2023

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Report on the 2023–24 Budget Estimates

Paul HAMER (Box Hill) (10:29): I too wish to rise to speak about the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee report on the 2023–24 budget estimates. As the member for Point Cook said, sadly I have resigned from the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee to give myself some more time in my new role. But it has been a terrific experience being on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, and I do want to thank the chair of the committee, the member for Laverton, and all of the other members. I would not be so presumptive as to call the member for Gippsland South the grandfather of the committee, but I do think that perhaps some long service leave might be in order after such long and distinguished service.

I do want to thank the staff of the committee, Dr Caroline Williams and all her staff, who do a power of work not just in running the committee and the committee process – it is a very intense period of hearings – but then also preparing in a relatively short time a very detailed and thorough report with, as has been said, 129 findings and 82 recommendations. I am sure that all members of the house are very pleased that this report has now been tabled, because it gives a lot of opportunities for people to speak about all elements of the budget and the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee findings in relation to that. As has been said by other speakers, it is a very important role that the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee provides in reviewing the budget for a particular year, not only as an opportunity to question all ministers of the Crown but also, as the member for Gippsland South said, members of the departments as well.

I was just reflecting on some of the other similar committees that we have around Australia. They are all set up slightly differently, but many of them are only upper house committees, such as the Senate estimates committees, for example, and I believe a similar committee in New South Wales is a Legislative Council committee, which obviously can restrict the ministers that can appear before those committees, whereas being a joint committee does require all the ministers to attend. I think that is a really important part of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee process.

There are, as I said, many good findings and recommendations that have come out of the report, and I am sure that I will be able to speak again on some of the details. I did want to talk particularly about the Department of Education. One thing about this particular report that I really like is that at the start of each chapter there is a summary of each expenditure and how all of that expenditure is broken down. I know with the Department of Education, the infrastructure program there, which is on page 51 of the report, it talks about our massive infrastructure program in schools – $8.5 billion that is either new expenditure or existing expenditure. I know how much of a difference that has been making in my own community of Box Hill. In particular in this budget there was $8.8 million allocated to the next stage of the rebuild of Koonung Secondary College and also planning for a new STEM centre at Orchard Grove Primary School in Blackburn South. I note how much of a difference this is making to the schools in my local area, and I know that this $8.5 billion program and the investment that has gone on beforehand have made a huge difference to schools right across the state. It is really a legacy of the Andrews and now Allan governments that we have put education and investment in schools at the forefront of this government.