Introduction

This report deals with a decision by the Minister for Tourism, the Hon Paul Papalia MLA, not to provide information to Parliament about the amount of funding allocated to certain events in the State’s 2019-20 budget.

Section 82 of the Financial Management Act 2006 (FM Act) requires a Minister who decides that it is reasonable and appropriate not to provide certain information to Parliament, to give written notice of the decision to both Houses of Parliament and the Auditor General within 14 days of the decision.

Section 24 of the Auditor General Act 2006 requires the Auditor General to provide an opinion to Parliament as to whether the Minister’s decision was reasonable and appropriate.

What we did

Our Audit Practice Statement sets out the process we follow to arrive at our section 82 opinions, including:

• a review of entity documents
• a review of any advice provided to the relevant Minister by entities, the State Solicitor’s Office or other legal advisers
• interviews with key entity persons including discussions about our draft findings and the Auditor General’s opinion.

Our procedures are designed to provide sufficient appropriate evidence to support an independent view to Parliament on the reasonableness and appropriateness of the Minister’s decision.

We have not performed an audit, however our procedures follow the key principles in the Australian Auditing and Assurance Standards.