Should the Auditor-General, Des Pearson, hand over working documents for some of his audits to PAEC?
JOHN BRUMBY: Well, that’s a matter for the Auditor-General and for PAEC. The Auditor-General is an officer of the Parliament, so it’s not for me to instruct the Auditor-General on what the Auditor-General should or shouldn’t do. He is an officer of the Parliament; he reports to the Parliament. But, I would say that, in relation to his work, you know, in relation to, I suppose an analogy might be the work that, you know, police or courts do, where they get a lot of early documents in relation to something they’re investigating; they get a lot of claims; they get a lot of counter-claims; they get a lot of information that comes before them. Their job is to sift through that, to work out what’s right, and then to inform the public, in the public interest, about that information. And, so, that’s the Auditor-General’s job, but it’s always the case in investigations, you get a lot of different information. He needs, I think, the protection and the confidence to be able to look at that materi
