Victorians under the Andrews Labor government have become poorer than all other states and territories bar South Australia, analysis by economist Saul Eslake shows.
Last modified on Thu 15 Apr 2021 17.40 EDT
Scott Morrison has again been urged by members of his own government to give a budget boost to the auditor general, despite the prime minister brushing off a similar request last year.
The joint committee of public accounts and audit, which is chaired by the Liberal MP Lucy Wicks and has a majority of Coalition members, has called for funding to reach a target of 48 performance audits a year and an extra $6-7m to test government entitiesâ claims about their achievements.
A spokesman for Angie Bell confirmed the Liberal MP had supported the recommendation âas does the whole committeeâ. The other Coalition members are Claire Chandler, David Gillespie, Matt OâSullivan, Paul Scarr, Ross Vasta and Rick Wilson â although Gillespie, at least, was not present when the committee deliberated on the call for more funding.
Share on Twitter
Australia s auditor-general is investigating the administration of a community grants program overseen by Peter Dutton.
Auditor-general Grant Hehir on Wednesday wrote to Labor Senator Kristina Keneally to confirm the audit is taking place after she requested a review of the program, the Safer Communities Fund.
The fund came under scrutiny earlier this year after it was revealed Mr Dutton, then the home affairs minister, had rejected his department s advice when he reduced funding from some applications and diverted it to other projects, at least one of which was in his Brisbane electorate.
Mr Dutton - now the defence minister - has strongly denied any wrongdoing and defended his management of the program.
An internal investigation is under way into why the federal government paid at least $13m over the odds for an $80m water buyback from Eastern Australia Agriculture – a company linked to federal MP Angus Taylor – in 2017. The auditor general, Grant Hehir, who reviewed the government’s water purchase program last year, contacted the valuer used by the Department of Agriculture for the sale, Colliers International, after receiving a complaint from.
It resulted in the department paying a record price of $2,745 per megalitre for the unreliable floodplain entitlements.
It has now emerged this was not what the valuer intended and the department appears to have misinterpreted the valuation advice.
Colliers’ discussion of a premium in the valuation was to guide the department if it chose to move beyond the recommended valuation of $1,500 per megalitre.
Colliers provided a range of values between $1,050 and $2,300 per megalitre and discussed factors that might shift the price.
Instead, the department took the top of the band and added about 20%.
The latest controversy over commonwealth procurement comes after revelations the government paid the Perich family almost $30m for a piece of land known as the Leppington Triangle, 10 times what it was valued at just 11 months later. An investigation is now under way into that sale.