Australian Banks (Government Audit) Bill 2019 [2020] AUSStaCSBSD 3 (5 February 2020)

• Australian Banks (Government Audit) Bill 2019
• Broad delegation of administrative powers 6

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Australian Banks (Government Audit) Bill 2019

Purpose	This bill seeks to provide for the auditing of Australian banks by the Commonwealth Auditor-General and provide better protection of deposits within Australia's banking system
Sponsor	Hon Bob Katter MP
Introduced	House of Representatives on 2 December 2019

Broad delegation of administrative powers ^[6]

1.11 Clause 6 of the bill provides that the Auditor-General may conduct audits of certain Australian banks. Clause 8 of the bill provides the Auditor-General or an authorised official with broad coercive powers that may be used when conducting an audit, including entering and remaining on premises, and accessing documents and accounts.^[7] An authorised official is defined as an official of a non-corporate Commonwealth entity who is authorised in writing by the Auditor-General to exercise powers or perform functions described under clause 8 of the bill.

1.12 The committee has consistently drawn attention to legislation that allows the delegation of coercive or investigatory powers to a relatively large class of persons, with little or no specificity as to their qualifications or attributes. Where broad delegations are provided for, the committee considers that an explanation of why these are considered necessary should be included in the explanatory memorandum. In this instance, the explanatory memorandum merely repeats the text of the provisions.

1.13 The committee is concerned that authorised officers can therefore be authorised to conduct audits without any requirement for them to possess appropriate qualifications or to have received training in the use of the relevant powers. The committee notes that subclause 12(3) provides that the Auditor-General must be satisfied that a person has relevant skills, experience and abilities where a person has previously worked for a bank or relevant government regulator, but this requirement is not extended to any other persons authorised by the Auditor-General to conduct audits.

1.14 The committee draws its scrutiny concerns to the attention of Senators and leaves to the Senate as a whole the appropriateness of allowing authorised officials to exercise potentially coercive or investigatory powers in circumstances where there is no legislative guidance about the appropriate skills and training required of those authorised officials.

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[6] Subclause 8(8). The committee draws senators’ attention to this provision pursuant to Senate Standing Order 24(1)(a)(ii).

[7] See subclause 8(1)(a) and (b).