Mr ANDREW: I have a question to the Audit Office.
CHAIR: We note the presence of Ms Karen Johnson, the Acting Auditor-General, and welcome
her to her first estimates. It is a unique experience.
Mr ANDREW: Ms Johnson, thank you for coming in. Have we ever conducted, like other
jurisdictions, a performance audit on a Queensland budget here in Queensland?
Ms Johnson: We are currently conducting an audit of the state budget process.
Mr ANDREW: Have you done one in the past?
Ms Johnson: No.
Mr ANDREW: You have never done an audit on a Queensland budget here in Queensland since
the parliament began?
Ms Johnson: No.
Mr ANDREW: Have we ever done an audit on a tier 1 provider, like a public-private partnership?
Have we done any performance audits on those?
CHAIR: We are going into multiple questions but I will put the question anyway.
Ms Johnson: Are you asking if we have audited a public-private partnership?
Mr ANDREW: Yes, here in Queensland.
Ms Johnson: A number of our audits will examine the relationship between the government and
the private partnership, but we have only recently got follow-the-dollar powers to enable us to do that
and we have not done so to date.
Mr ANDREW: So you have not done so in the past.
Ms Johnson: No.

Mr ANDREW: Thank you. Earlier I asked a question of the Audit Office which in no way reflects
on their performance. I was actually asking that as a remit of the government. Would the government
implement more transparency as far as engaging the Audit Office to look at Queensland budgets and
make sure that all of our interactions with tier 1 and private-public partnerships are audited by the office?
This would make sure we are not just measuring success on what we spend but actually have an
opportunity to see what we do not spend. It is in the Queensland taxpayers’ interest.
CHAIR: Premier, are you clear about the question?
Mr MILES: I think so, and I thank the member for Mirani for his question. I think the Acting
Auditor-General did her best to answer that question. What the QAO determines to audit is determined
independently, and we have recently made reforms to make that process even more independent by
making the Auditor-General an officer of the parliament and the other amendments that we made. We
recently announced the appointment of a new Auditor-General, the first female Auditor-General,
Ms Rachel Vagg. She will start in August. Given the member’s interest, I would be very happy to organise for him to have a meeting with her to talk about his interests in performance auditing of
government departments.

CHAIR: It is also about a process of inviting suggestions of things to audit. Anyway, I am stepping
outside my bounds. Thank you, member for Mirani.