Estimates committees commence operation
Somewhere, someplace in Canberra right now public servants are making an administrative or a policy decision and one of the key questions they are going to ask is this: will this survive scrutiny at estimates? (Robert Ray, 2010)
The first legislative and general purpose standing committees commence operation
First referral of a bill to a legislative and general purpose standing committee
Before 1970, details of the government’s proposed expenditure (known as estimates) were debated solely in the chamber. This was time consuming and created difficulties for the limited number of ministers in the Senate responsible for answering questions from senators.
On 17 September 1970 the Senate referred the estimates for the year ended 30 June 1971 to newly created estimates committees whose subject interests matched the portfolios of the five Senate ministers. The estimates committees sat for 74 hours and questioned 144 departmental officers, reducing the time taken to consider the government’s proposed expenditure in the Senate in previous years by over 60 per cent. A review of the estimates hearings noted that they enabled senators ‘to probe more deeply and obtain more information from Ministers and departmental officers’ and were ‘clearly a success’.
Today, examination of the estimates is carried out by legislation committees. These committees scrutinise not only the expenditure proposals, but the wide-ranging operations and activities of government departments and agencies, thus providing one of the most powerful tools used by the Senate to hold the government to account.
FInd out more
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Gordon Sinclair Davidson, Senator for South Australia, Interview with Bruce Edwards on the examination of the estimates before estimates committees, 1985 National Library of Australia, TRC 4900/41, session 64, 00:24:51-00:27:44. |
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Harold Young, Senator for South Australia 1968-83, Interview with Ken Taylor, 1987 National Library of Australia, TRC 4900/97, session 4, 00:31:29-00:32:27. |
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George Branson, Senator for Western Australia 1958-71, Interview with Clarence Hermes, 1984 National Library of Australia, TRC 4900/16, session 9, 00:20:04-00:22:23. |
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Gordon Sinclair Davidson, Senator for South Australia, Interview with Bruce Edwards, 1984-86 National Library of Australia, TRC 4900/41, session 61, 00:25:25-00:26:56. |
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Geoffrey Thomas McLaren, Senator for South Australia 1971-83, Interview with Tony Hannan, 1988 National Library of Australia, TRC 4900/71, session 6, 00:11:45-00:13:45. |
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Senators speak on the importance of estimates hearings Department of the Senate, 2018 |
Senate Journals, 17 September 1970, p. 299
Where it all began. The estimates are referred for the first time to the newly established estimates committees.
Senate Journals, 17 September 1970, p. 299
From left: Senator the Hon. Sir Alister McMullin KCMG (President of the Senate) and senators George Georges, Douglas McClelland, Kenneth Anderson, Magnus Cormack (chair), Lionel Murphy, Vincent Gair, John Sim and Harold Young
Estimates Committee A photographed on its first day of operation, 17 September 1970.
From left: Senator the Hon. Sir Alister McMullin KCMG (President of the Senate) and senators George Georges, Douglas McClelland, Kenneth Anderson, Magnus Cormack (chair), Lionel Murphy, Vincent Gair, John Sim and Harold Young