Wednesday, 18 October 2023

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Appointment of the Parliamentary Budget Officer

Paul HAMER (Box Hill) (10:12): There are a lot of committee reports to speak about in this sitting week, but I want to speak about the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC) report Appointment of the Parliamentary Budget Officer. The Parliamentary Budget Officer is a very important role under the legislation that was passed by the Andrews government in 2017 creating an independent position which is responsible for preparing election policy costings, pre-election reports, post-election reports and costings of other policies or proposed policies at the request of a member of Parliament and providing advisory services to members of Parliament on financial, fiscal or economic matters, including in relation to the costing of proposals included in the state budget. While we in this place may debate the merits of the questions that might be posed to the Parliamentary Budget Office or the merits of the various proposals, it is very important that there is an independent Parliamentary Budget Officer that can fulfil the duties for all MPs.

The term of the previous Parliamentary Budget Officer had expired, and I thank Mr Anthony Close, the previous Parliamentary Budget Officer, for his service. The time had come to appoint a new Parliamentary Budget Officer, and I was part of the PAEC subcommittee that was part of this recruitment process. I just want to at the outset start by acknowledging and thanking the selection panel who commenced this process, and they were Mr Jason Loos, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Premier and Cabinet; David Martine, the Secretary of the Department of Treasury and Finance; our own Bridget Noonan, the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly; and Mr Yves Giroux, the Canadian Parliamentary Budget Officer, who given the time difference between Ottawa and Melbourne often found himself working long into weekend evenings in order to be able to share his thoughts and participate in the meetings with the candidates. A very extensive selection and interview process was conducted, and I do thank the executive recruitment firm Watermark Search International for the work that they put into identifying potential candidates.

I must say as a member of the selection panel, the PAEC subcommittee, I was amazed at the standard of the candidates, and I do want to thank all of the candidates who put in applications for this very important role in the governance of Victoria. You never approach an application of this type lightly, and I again want to thank all of the applicants that put their names forward. After a very extensive process and multiple interviews, the PAEC subcommittee and the PAEC committee in whole selected Mr Xavier Rimmer, who had been the Acting Parliamentary Budget Officer and was previously working in the Parliamentary Budget Office, as the next Parliamentary Budget Officer. Mr Rimmer is a longtime public servant and economist. He has worked in the Australian Parliamentary Budget Office. He will make a fantastic contribution in his role as the Parliamentary Budget Officer, and I wish him well in this role.