Senator the Hon Don Farrell

The Albanese Government welcomes the Auditor-General’s performance audit of the Parliamentary Expenses Management System, tabled today.

This system has never functioned as intended. Mismanaged since the former Government introduced it in 2018, this is one of the most embarrassing IT bungles in history.

From Opposition we raised hundreds of questions, over successive years - all which fell on deaf ears.

In coming to office, we proactively referred the project to the Australian National Audit Office to ensure this never happens again.

The Report today highlights the repeated failures of the former government to address over 4 years of delays, a lack of user consultation and a budget blow out of almost double what they had budgeted for to build the program.

I expect that the Department of Finance and the project team will address the recommendations of the Auditor-General.