The Auditor-General Act 2009 (the Act) governs the powers and functions of the Auditor-General.
The Act provides the legal basis for the Auditor-General’s access to all government information and the freedom to report findings arising from audit reports.
The main objectives of the Auditor-General Act 2009 are to:
- establish the position of the Queensland Auditor-General and the Deputy Auditor-General
- establish the Queensland Audit Office (QAO)
- confer on the Queensland Auditor-General and QAO the functions and powers necessary to carry out independent audits of the Queensland public sector and related entities
- provide for the strategic review of QAO
- provide for the independent audit of QAO.
The Act promotes the independence of the Auditor-General and all authorised auditors. This means the Auditor-General may conduct an audit in any way considered appropriate and is not subject to direction by any person about the way audit powers are to be exercised.
Professor Coaldrake's 2022 review identified opportunities to strengthen the independence of the Auditor-General. These opportunities were addressed through amendments to the Auditor-General Act 2009.
The first tranche of changes were included in the Integrity and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2022, which was passed by parliament on 30 November 2022 and assented to on 12 December 2022. The second tranche of changes were included in the Integrity and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2024, which was passed by parliament on 15 February 2024 and assented to on 19 February 2024.
Together, these amendments enhanced the independence of the Auditor-General by:
- formally recognising the Auditor-General as an officer of the parliament
- shifting employment of QAO staff from the Public Sector Act 2022 to the Auditor-General Act 2009
- including government owned corporations within QAO's mandate for performance audits
- increasing the role of the parliamentary committee in approving QAO's budget.
Read the Auditor-General Act 2009
Australasian Council of Auditors General survey on independence
In 2009, the Victorian Auditor General’s Office commissioned a survey on behalf of the Australasian Council of Auditors General (ACAG) to compare the range of independence safeguards for Auditors-General in the legislative frameworks for New Zealand, the Commonwealth of Australia, and in each Australian state and territory.
The survey was repeated in 2013 and in 2020. It aimed to update the findings from the prior years by examining the legislative framework in effect in each jurisdiction as at March 2020. The resultant report titled Independence of Auditors General: A 2020 update of a survey of Australian and New Zealand legislation is provided below.