Whish-Wilson, Sen Peter

Senator WHISH-WILSON (Tasmania) (14:19): The ANAO audit report identified that the Commonwealth does not carry out any testing of the flow meters that are used to calculate the volume of oil and gas extracted which the royalties are based on. The ANAO report found that one meter, for example, was out of action for a whole five years without anybody noticing. Given the failure of the department over the decades to audit whether the tax deductions were legitimate or not and given that we do not even know if the oil and gas meters are functioning properly, does the Australian government still have confidence in the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science to administer the Commonwealth royalty regime? (Time expired)