The Chairman of a Senate committee, dominated by Labor and Greens representatives, has accused the Government’s Commission of Audit of being “rigged”, following the release of an interim report yesterday. From the Canberra Times:
“The Abbott government has constructed very narrow terms of reference for the commission and hand-picked ideological allies as commissioners so that it gets precisely the outcome it wants,” Senator di Natale said.
“Tony Abbott has picked the players and written the rules so that the game was rigged before it even began.”
Among 10 recommendations by the Labor and Green-dominated committee are calls for the Commission to publish the submissions it has received, a list of the meetings it has been involved in, and the full declarations of conflicts of interest signed by the commissioners…
The committee recommends the Commission’s remit be broadened to include the consideration of government revenue, as well as spending on tax concessions. It says any proposals to privatise services should be subject to a cost-benefit analysis.
The rationale behind the Commission of Audit is sound. Good governance demands efficient and well-targeted expenditure. Moreover, with Australia’s population ageing as the large baby boomer cohort shifts into retirement, and Australia facing a falling share of workers supporting retirees, root-and-branch reform of government taxation and spending is essential to place the Budget on a sustainable footing.
That said, the Government opened itself up to accusations of bias as soon as it announced its commissioners, whose narrow membership includes the Business Council of Australia’s (BCA) president, Tony Shepherd, as its head, with the secretariat also headed by chief economist and director of policy at the BCA, Peter Crone. Importantly, the Commission includes no representatives from small business, consumer groups, or welfare groups.
Given its business-centric membership base, there is the risk that any proposals coming from the Audit will favour business interests, while the rest of the economy shares the pain of Budget cuts.
The secretive nature of the Commission, whereby deliberations and submissions have been kept secret, has also heightened suspicion of “rigging”, as does the failure to declare conflicts of interest.
The Senate committees recommendation that the Audit Commission broaden its remit to include revenue is also sensible, given that the Budget is suffering more from a collapse in revenues than increasing expenditures (see next chart).
In any event, with Treasurer Joe Hockey due to hand down his first Budget in May, we will soon find out whether the Senate committee’s concerns of “rigging” are warranted.
