This dissertation analyses the origin, purposes, nature, operation
and achievements of the Commonwealth's Parliamentary Standing
Committee on Public Works (Public Works Committee - PWC),
and assesses its utility to parliament. The PWC originated in
1913 as a permanent committee of parliamentarians established to
examine government proposals for public works, and report on
them to parliament. Its purpose is to provide detailed data on
works proposals in order to allow informed voting. In the process
parliament also achieves a degree of control over government
- ministers and public servants. Unlike most parliamentary
audit of government expenditure, the PWC scrutinises proposals
before works are built. It is a joint, statutory, scrutiny
committee.
The proper role for parliamentary committees in general is the
checking of government, through influence, criticism, scrutiny,
and publicity. The PWC is assessed against this role through an
analysis of its legislation and operation, and interviews with
involved parliamentarians and bureaucrats. Criteria used include
adequacy of evidence obtained, precision and clarity of
reports, and degree of influence on government and acceptance of
recommendations. In these terms the PWC has little effect in
controlling policy making by the executive government - cabinet
and ministers. Moreover, specific amendment of its act together
with the consequential effects of nominally unrelated
legislation, have reduced the scope of Committee activities to
an estimated less than half of all Commonwealth public works.
This trend is continuing under current policies of corporatising
departmental activities and excluding the resulting statutory
corporations from PWC examination. These moves prevent parliament
playing its proper role in the governance of the country.
However, within the ambit of its powers, the PWC generally rates
highly against the above criteria, and exerts a significant
degree of parliamentary control over government administration -
the public service - in the implementation of public works.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219116 |
| Date | January 1990 |
| Creators | Laver, John Poynton, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Management |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright John Poynton Laver |
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