Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee [Part 2], , 30:16 to 35:37
The committee examines the specific grant for the Marrickville Golf Club, focusing on whether the department provided advice regarding the project's scope to address sewage overflows into the Cooks River.
Topics: Infrastructure, Grants administration, Water management
Speakers: Senator Dave Sharma, Blair Exell, Pauline Sullivan, Speaker 1, Senator The Hon Jane Hume, Speaker 5
>> That that's my understanding. Yes.
>> Okay. And when you said you did quality assurance, can you just explain what did quality assurance involve?
>> It it's exactly what I just said. You go through and you check um is the commitment actually. So what you've what you've got listed as commitments [clears throat] is it um in terms of the right commitment the right portfolio that sort of thing. So and sometimes as I said there's duplication so the same commitment may be recorded three or four times um or as I said you may actually have a situation where it was a commitment by party Y but it actually turned up on the election commitments of party X that sort of thing. >> Okay. So, as I said, it's basically a it's a it's cleaning it up basically. I
>> I will just note, Senator Sharma, that um a lot of this material was gone through in the um couple of days of uh hearings last week and I believe that that inquiry um is ongoing um and has more hearings yet to come before the end of the year.
>> No, and I No, thank you, chair. Appreciate that. I just wanted to understand PMC's involvement. How [clears throat] is the MLCI set up? Was that a decision of cabinet or the expenditure review committee of cabinet
>> that's not in this portfolio?
>> it's not
program >> Um it's um so program delivery and so forth not done by PMNC. It's delivered by departments who actually have the expertise and knowledge of how to deliver programs. >> In this case, specifically referring to
his infrastructure.
>> Was PMNC consulted on the creation of the MLCI?
>> So there was a role senator um and again I think um last week um PNC gave evidence to this uh around the grant guidelines. So the grant guidelines are established by the relevant department. There's a process by which they're um signed off through the department of finance and um they they manage the grant guidelines process and policies. Uh essentially they seek to uh confirm policy authority with PMC that that the program that's being established has a necessary or policy authority.
>> Do you does PMC provide input into those grant guidelines?
So that uh not specifically but we
>> it's basically to assess in particular the that it's consistent with the government's policy authority for the
can I ask about just the specific project the Maritville Golf Club project? Did PMC provide advice to the any element of that grant would address the septic tank or sewage outflows into the Cooks River?
>> Sen, it's not the role of prime minister and cabinet to um go into the specifics of the program that are implemented by various departments. Again, we we cover the election components. um we support the process of government by which um it handles the o the overall um or policy or authorization but we don't go into the specific projects
>> and Senator Sharma these um issues were explored in some depth um last week
>> okay so PMC doesn't did not provide advice on what the scope of that particular project would be
>> that's correct
Um, is PMC aware that the prime minister made a statement to the house that um, the funding was to be used to address septic tank and sewage overflows into the Cooks River?
>> Again, Senator Sharma, I'll tell you, I sat there earlier last week and listened to this unpacked to some degree and a lot of answers. Just taking you through those questions. The transcript should
>> I think I'm near the end of my blog. Sure. I'll finish this slide trying to Is PMC aware of the statement the prime minister made in the house that uh described part of the use of the project is to as addressing septic tank or sewage overflows into the Cooks River.
>> I I'm I'm aware in the broads
has PMC provided any advice to the prime minister that that statement was
As I said earlier, Senate PMC did not provide advice around the overall
I'm just
>> there is an in-depth answer to exactly what you're asking in the transcript which was answered by a range of different departments. So, you can piece it together by nature of how
>> but I'm particularly interested chair in the prime minister's department. Um because if the prime minister has said something that the prime minister's department knows to be incorrect or inaccurate, I would expect the normal course of events would be for the department to brief the prime minister's office and alert them to that fact. Did that happen?
>> Again, I'll repeat, Senator, the the prime minister department did PNC did not provide advice on the specific
>> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Exell. >> Thank you, Chair.