Ms O’CONNOR – Thank you, Chair. In overview.
CHAIR – Please don’t wander into other areas.
Ms O’CONNOR – No, Attorney-General, there are outputs which relate to this question, but they’re separate outputs. I want to ask you a holistic question about funding for integrity and oversight bodies in this budget. As we know the Integrity Commission faces an efficiency dividend. They’re the lowest funded integrity by a long margin in the country. In fact, Chief Commissioner Greg Mellick has said it will be, and I quote, ‘On our current budget, we cannot provide the level of investigation or oversight the report recommends’. The Ombudsman, who is also responsible for the National Preventative Mechanism has issued a similar statement, and in fact the NPM can’t perform their statutory function on the funding you’ve allocated. Did you push during budget negotiations for the integrity and oversight bodies within your portfolios to have adequate funding? Did you explain to your colleagues that they would not be able to effectively perform their statutory responsibilities if they weren’t provided with more funds?
Mr BARNETT – Through you, Chair, thank you very much for the question. First of all, I want to say I value the Integrity Commission and their important role as does the government. It’s very important that they have the ability to undertake that role. We take it very –
Ms O’CONNOR – They don’t on their current funding.
CHAIR – We will let the Attorney-General answer.
Mr BARNETT – So I take this matter very seriously. We actually have increased funding to the Integrity Commission; $200,000 a year over the next four years to support the commission of inquiry to implement its oversight and compliance program to actively monitor and oversee notifications and investigations conducted by public authorities. I draw that to your attention.
CHAIR – We don’t want to wander too much into this because this is later on down our list.
Mr BARNETT – Sure. It was part of the question through you, Chair, related to the efficiency dividends which I’d like to respond to the member.
Ms O’CONNOR – For both the Integrity Commissioner and the Ombudsman. Hobbling them.
Mr BARNETT – I’m responding to the question on the efficiency dividend with respect to the Integrity Commission, which was a question I heard, and I’d like to put it on the record if that’s okay. As I have previously advised the House, the Integrity Commission is subject to efficiency dividends and has been allocated an annual budget efficiency dividend of $20,000 in the 2024-25 year. The number is less than indexation. It is so small it actually is not even captured in the budget. I draw that to your attention. Having said that we do take it very seriously and it’s a very important organisation, and with respect to our independent oversight entities across government, more than happy to deal with those in the various outputs but we do consider them all very seriously and important.
Ms O’CONNOR – Not seriously enough to fund them adequately, minister, with respect.
CHAIR – Thank you. Unless you have another oversight question, and then we are going to head into Supreme Court Services.
