Audit Act 1994
59Transmission of reports to Parliament
Start here
Get a plain-English read of 59
Turn the raw legal text into a practical explanation grounded in Audit Act 1994.
59 Transmission of reports to Parliament
(1) The Auditor-General must cause a report under section 56 of any audit or assurance review to be transmitted to each House of the Parliament as soon as practicable after the report has been completed.
(2) The Auditor-General must cause a report under section 57 on the annual financial report of the State to be transmitted to each House of the Parliament on or before 24 November next following the financial year to which it relates.
(3) The clerk of each House of the Parliament must cause the report to be laid before the House on the day on which it is received or on the next sitting day of the House.
(4) If the Auditor-General proposes to transmit the report to the Parliament when the Parliament is in recess, the Auditor-General must—
(a) give one business day's notice of the Auditor-General's intention to do so to the clerk of each House of the Parliament; and
(b) give the report to the clerk of each House on the day indicated in the notice; and
(c) publish the report on the Auditor-General's website as soon as practicable after giving it to the clerk of each House.
(5) The clerk of each House must—
(a) notify each member of the House of the receipt of a notice under subsection (4)(a) on the same day that the clerk receives that notice; and
(b) give a copy of the report to each member of the House as soon as practicable after the report is received under subsection (4)(b); and
(c) cause the report to be laid before the House on the next sitting day of the House.
(6) A report given to the clerks of each House under subsection (4)(b) is taken to have been published by order, or under the authority, of the Parliament.
(7) The publication of a report by the Auditor-General under subsection (4)(c) is absolutely privileged and the provisions of sections 73 and 74 of the Constitution Act 1975 and any other enactment or rule of law relating to the publication of the proceedings of the Parliament apply to and in relation to the publication of the report as if—
(a) it were a report to which those sections applied; and
(b) the report had been published by the Government Printer under the authority of the Parliament.
(8) For the purposes of this section, Parliament is in recess when neither House is sitting.
S. 60 inserted by No. 12/2019 s. 9.