Introduction

This report deals with decisions by the Premier and 2 Ministers not to provide information to Parliament on agency targets for the Voluntary Targeted Separation Scheme (VTSS). It includes:

• one decision by the Premier, the Hon Mark McGowan MLA, about the Department of the Premier and Cabinet’s target
• one decision by the Minister for Regional Development; Agriculture and Food, the Hon Alannah MacTiernan MLC, about the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development’s target
• one decision by the Minister for Police, the Hon Michelle Roberts MLA, about the Western Australia Police Force’s (WA Police) target for FTE reduction to meet the forward estimates expectation.

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 (AG Act) requires the Auditor General to provide an opinion to Parliament as to whether the Minister’s decision was reasonable and appropriate.

What did we do?

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

• a review of agency documents
• a review of any advice provided to the relevant Minister by agencies, the State Solicitor’s Office (SSO) or other legal advisers
• interviews with key agency 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.

As the reasons given by the Premier and 2 Ministers were that the information could not be provided for reasons of Cabinet confidentiality, we followed the approach laid out in previous Opinions on Ministerial Notifications dealing with Cabinet confidentiality, the core principle of which is to protect information that would reveal deliberations and decisions of Cabinet. We assessed the requested information against the following Cabinet confidentiality considerations:

• Is part or all of the information publicly available?
• Does the information contain material that would reveal the deliberations and decisions of Cabinet?
• Was the information created for the purpose of informing Cabinet or being discussed in Cabinet? Does it include policy options or recommendations prepared for submission to Cabinet?
• Did the Minister consider providing any sections of the information that would not reveal deliberations and decisions of Cabinet?

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