Parliamentary Committees
Defence is subject to a high level of scrutiny throughout the year including through appearances before numerous parliamentary committees. Defence attended three 'Estimates' hearings in 2005–06 under the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation committee. Apart from these hearings, Defence made numerous appearances before parliamentary committees where we were held accountable for a wide variety of issues including capability acquisition and sustainment, financial management and strategic and international policies. To support these processes, Defence provided parliamentary committees with submissions, evidence at hearings and replies to questions on notice to ensure proper accountability of our operations and administration.
Summary of Defence's involvement with Parliamentary committees during 2005–06
No. of submissions provided to parliamentary committee inquiries: 50
No. of hearings/private briefings attended by Defence witnesses: 39
Hours spent by Defence witnesses at Parliamentary Committee hearings(1): 237
No. of questions taken on notice relating to parliamentary committees: 211
Much of the time spent before parliamentary committees involved several Defence witnesses. For example, Defence always had 30 to 40 officials at hand for Senate estimates hearings. The 211 responses provided to questions taken on notice in the main involved multiple parts and were increasingly complex. Defence continued its good record of timely responses during 2005–06.
Further information on External Scrutiny can be found at Appendix Three.
- Records time spent at hearings rather than the number of witnesses. [ back ]