Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee [Part 2], , 24:55 to 30:16
Senator Sharma asks about the department's role in collating and verifying election commitments for the Major Local Community Infrastructure (MLCI) program following the 2025 federal election.
Topics: Infrastructure, Grants administration, Government spending
Speakers: Blair Exell, Pauline Sullivan, Senator Dave Sharma
Thanks, chair. I have some questions about the department's involvement in the major local community infrastructure In the um in the infrastructure department's submission to the inquiry into this major and local community infrastructure program, the infrastructure department said it leers with the department of the prime minister and cabinet to verify which community infrastructure commitments announced by the government in both the context of the 2025 federal election and the 2025 PIO would be allocated to the department to implement. So I just want to understand what role did PMNC have in either identifying or compiling or collating or sending a list of MLCI invitees or projects.
I can start back a couple of steps. So the role of prime minister and cabinet through the uh caretaker period or or or the election period was to um colleate or um p pull together all of the election commitments made um uh by by parties and individuals um pull those together in into a comprehensive list. Um and I think um my colleague went through this at the rural and regional committee last week. um that that list is is then um shared um as a normal process with with the government uh when when they form government that that occurred in the context of the 2025 the May 2025 elections uh that list at that point in time just after the election is I guess I would deem um an initial list that's that's the best list at that time which goes to um an understanding of the government's set election commitments and what prime minister cabinet has collated. Um then there's a process um undertaken by by government um normally through a budget process of um authorizing or giving the policy framing or the policy authority for for those commitments. um prime minister and cabinet um throughout that process works with relevant portfolio departments in terms of um which of those commitments um should be implemented by which department. So in this context yes that that that was the major um and local infrastructure projects that went to the department of the infrastructure. I hope that helps with the broader role.
>> So that's the role of cabinet [clears throat] division. Your head had a cabinet division. Uh yes, there's the
um well, we've restructured since the 2025 election. Um but the the people who were doing some of that work straight after the election so forth have now been moved into my division. So Okay. >> Which is why I'm here.
>> Okay. So when was that list >> sent to the infrastructure department?
>> So I guess um so the list from us post election. >> Yes. Um it was sent in May
>> May 2025.
>> So as Mr. Exell said um post election there's a process of basically doing a quality assurance on the commitments. It's also worth noting that um during during election campaigns so PMNC has a role tracking election commitments and that's across as for all departments all parties who may form government but also given our coord and central coordinating role we track all portfolios individual departments track their own portfolio um uh commitments made by various parties. So once we've um so once a government has formed and we then meet with the PMO, we work through sort of what they think has been committed to in terms of their election camp commitments, we see how it lines up with ours and then there's a process that once we've reconciled those, we then go out to all departments to check against their lists as well. So it's basically a reconciliation process. It's also, as I said, is a quality assurance um process as well. given that you'll often get duplicates of commitments or things will be sort of categorized incorrectly or you may even have um you know a commitment by by party X that actually should belong to party Y that sort of thing. So a lot of that process well the entire process is essentially getting agreement on what the commitments are and are they in the correct portfolio. C
>> can I add Senator? So I'm also cautious about giving an indication it might be we just take that we'll confirm that exact date. um on notice because there's a backwards and forwards element here. So I'm cautious about saying there's a final notice because what in my experience both in PMC and outside PMC actually sometimes there's initial hour allocation and then a period [clears throat] later whether it's 3 weeks or a month the department says actually that's not the right fit that should be in a different program. So
>> correct >> or even a different portfolio.
>> Yeah. So I'm just cautious about kind of referring to final lists or final advice because there's a backwards and forwards out element.
>> Okay. Well, the the list that you provided, >> I mean, I conscious that it was an iterative process, but in May 2025, and we could use that as the reference point, did that list include the Marville Golf Club project?