Northern Territory Bills

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PUBLIC ACCOUNTS AND ESTIMATES COMMITEE BILL 2002

2. Object
The main object of this Act is to enhance the accountability of public administration in the Territory by establishing a Public Accounts and Estimates Committee of the Legislative Assembly.

3. Definitions
In this Act unless the contrary intention appears –

"Committee" means the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee established by this Act;

"member" means a member of the Legislative Assembly.

5. Membership of Committees
The committee is to consist of 6 members of whom –

(a) 3 are to be appointed by the Chief Minister; and

(b) 3 are to be appointed by the Leader of the Opposition.

(2) In the event that the Committee is not be able to agree on a member who is to be the Chairperson of the Committee, the Legislative Assembly may appoint a member to be the Chairperson.

7. Quorum and voting at meetings of Committee
At a meeting of the Committee –

(a) a quorum consists of 4 members;

(b) a question is decided by a majority of the votes of the members of the Committee present and voting; and

(c) each member of the Committee has a vote on each question to be decided and, if the votes are equal, the Chairperson of the Committee has a casting vote.

(a) by examining government financial documents; and

(b) by considering the annual and other reports of the Auditor-General.

(2) The Minister who is responsible for the issue the subject of the report must provide the Legislative Assembly with a response.

(3) The response is to set out –

(a) any recommendations to be adopted and the way and time within which they will be carried out; and

(b) any recommendations not to be adopted and the reasons for not adopting them.

(5) If a Minister cannot comply with subsection (4), the Minister must –

(a) within 3 months after the report is tabled – table an interim response and the Minister's reasons for not complying within 3 months; and

(b) within 6 months after the report is tabled – table the response.

(7) This section does not apply to an annual report of the Committee.

12. Privilege against self-incrimination
(1) If a person appearing before the Committee does not –

(a) answer a question asked by the Committee; or

(b) produce a document or thing the Committee asked the person to produce to it,

(2) However, the person need not comply with the requirement if –

(a) the person objects to answering the question, or producing the thing, because answering the question, or producing the thing, might tend to incriminate the person; and

(b) the person would have a claim of privilege against self-incrimination in a Supreme Court action if the person were asked the question or asked to produce the thing.

(4) The Legislative Assembly may order a person to appear before the Committee and answer any or particular questions, or produce any or particular documents or other things.

(5) In deciding whether to make an order under subsection (4), the Legislative Assembly must have regard to –

(a) the public interest in having the questions answered before the Committee or the documents or other things produced to the Committee; and

(b) the public interest in providing appropriate protection to individuals against self-incrimination.

(7) An order may be made under subsection (4) for a class of persons, including persons who have not appeared, or been asked to appear, before the Committee.

(8) Evidence may not be given in any proceeding of an answer given by a person before the Committee or the fact that a person produced a document or other thing to the Committee.

(9) However, subsection (8) does not apply to –

(a) a proceeding before the Legislative Assembly or a committee of the Assembly; or

(b) a criminal proceeding about the falsity, or the misleading, threatening or offensive nature, of the answer, document or other thing.

(2) Subsection (1) applies even if the Committees is constituted during different Parliaments.

14. Annual report of Committee
(1) As soon as practicable after the end of each financial year, the Chairperson of the Committee must table in the Legislative Assembly a report about the Committee's activities during the year.

(2) The report is to include –

(a) a list of meetings of the Committee and the names of members attending or absent from each meeting;

(b) a summary of issues considered by the Committee including a description of the more significant issues arising from the considerations;

(c) a statement of the Committee's revenue and spending for the year; and

(d) a brief description of responses by Ministers to recommendations of the Committee.

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