Parliament's Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC) Inquiry

As Minister for Environment and Conservation, Garbutt was subject to scrutiny by the Parliament's Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC) Inquiry into 2002–03 budget estimates on 25 June 2002, concerning her failure to table the 1999–2000 and 2000–01 Reports of the Surveyor-General of Victoria, Keith Clifford Bell, as required under the Survey Coordination Act (1958).^[2] Although she advised the PAEC that the reports were not tabled as she considered them inaccurate, she was unable to provide any details of inaccuracies. Garbutt was also interviewed on ABC Radio by Virginia Trioli on 1 July 2002 and again claimed that the Surveyor-General's reports were inaccurate, but was unable to provide any details of her claims of inaccuracies.^[3] The reports were subsequently tabled without alteration and Garbutt made no further claims of inaccuracies. Notably, the Executive Director of Land Victoria, Elizabeth O'Keeffe, to whom the Surveyor-General reported through to Garbutt and the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) Secretary Chloe Munro left her position in August 2002. It was noted that Garbutt had received her advice on unsubstantiated inaccuracies in the Surveyor-General's reports from O'Keeffe. From the outset, both the Victorian Government Solicitor and the Auditor-General had advised that such reports should be tabled without interference. Matters raised by the Surveyor-General were also reported in the Auditor-General's own investigations and confirmed.^[4]

Auditor-General's Investigation

Concerns raised in the Surveyor-General's reports were confirmed by the Auditor-General, who in 2002 reviewed the functions and responsibilities of the Surveyor-General. The Surveyor-General reported to Minister (Garbutt) and was under Land Victoria for administration, a responsibility of Garbutt. The Auditor-General identified the interference by Land Victoria in the performance of the Surveyor-General's responsibilities, including the wrongful transfer of the Surveyor-General's responsibilities to other units of Land Victoria outside of the Office of Surveyor-General, viz. the Land Information Group under its then Director, Stephen Jacoby . The Auditor-General advised that the Surveyor-General's responsibilities could not be transferred without legislative mandate, consistent with the opinion of the Victorian Government Solicitor. The Auditor-General found that the transfer of the functions of the Surveyor-General had seen them delivered unsatisfactorily by the Land Information Group, and failing to meet the legislative obligations.^[5] The Opposition directed all blame for concerns to Minister Garbutt, and emphasized the extreme political interference in the performance of the statutory functions of the Surveyor-General by Garbutt, DNRE Secretary Munro Land Victoria senior management under Executive Director, Elizabeth O'Keeffe.^[6]

Estate Agents Guarantee Fund (EAGF)

Further concerns about Garbutt were raised in the Parliament, on 17 April 2002 and again on 17 October 2002, by Opposition environment spokesman Victor Perton, regarding the attempted misuse of millions of dollars from the Estate Agents Guarantee Fund (EAGF) by Land Victoria and the Department of Justice (DoJ). Specifically, Perton reported that Land Victoria and the Department of Justice had "conspired to invent a 'survey reform' project to win $7.5 million from the fund. Land Victoria, a division of DNRE, under direction of the Executive Director O’Keeffe, and in collaboration with DoJ, was reported to have attempted to create “the survey project” to obtain extra government funding through EAGF, despite already having been funded. The administration of EAGF was under DoJ. It was later reported that the Surveyor-General had reported his concerns to the Auditor-General who stepped in to prevent it proceeding. The Surveyor-General also reported his concerns to the Ombudsman. Perton, in April 2002 in Parliament and earlier in the media, quoted "from documents from 2001 in which the assistant director of land records and information services, Ivan Powell, talks of having 'invented some benefits' in regards to the project and of a request to 'invent another layer of detail'. Powell was a senior Land Registry official (under Land Victoria).^[7][8][9]

Political Interference in the performance of the Surveyor-General's responsibilities

The Opposition blamed Garbutt, and also her successor Mary Delahunty, for extreme political interference in the performance of the Surveyor-General's responsibilities. Such interference included: attempts to block or alter annual reports from the Surveyor-General; affix his electronic signature without his knowledge or permission; threats and intimidation by the former Executive Director of Land Victoria Elizabeth O'Keeffe; hiring of private investigators to investigate the Surveyor-General and his office; and efforts to interfere with his review of State electoral boundaries in his capacity as an Electoral Boundaries Commissioner. The responsible departmental secretaries were Chloe Munro (DNRE 1999-2002) and Lindsay Nielson (Department of Sustainability and Environment, from 2003).^[4]

Over the period 2001-04, The Age, Herald Sun and ABC carried numerous reports of such interference and it was frequently raised by the Opposition in both Houses of the Parliament of Victoria and was reported in Hansard. It was also reported that O’Keeffe had approved an illegal $100,000 contract for a consultant to "lobby her own Minister" Garbutt to discredit the Surveyor-General. The contract was signed with the Australian Spatial Information Business Association (ASIBA), later known as the Spatial Information Business Association (SIBA) and now the Geospatial Council of Australia (GCA). GCA also includes the Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute (SSSI). The contract was agreed between O'Keeffe and then ASIBA Chairman, Tony Wheeler, and then ASIBA Chief Executive Officer, David Hocking. The contract was signed with the concurrence of Garbutt and Munro. After adverse media and Opposition reporting, the contract was found to not be appropriate and was cancelled after the first tranche of $25,000 was paid to ASIBA.^[6]

However, the efforts of O'Keeffe, approved by Munro and Garbutt, did not succeed and were decried through frequent reporting by the media and in the State Parliament by the Opposition. On 12 July 2002, the prominent Melbourne newspaper, The Age, reported that O’Keeffe had resigned and further reported that the Opposition claimed O’Keeffe had been sacked. Minister Garbutt denied that O'Keeffe had been sacked.^[10] The same day, O’Keeffe issued an internal memo, copied to all DNRE staff, dismissing the Opposition claims and advising she had instructed her lawyers to seek an unconditional retraction and apology from the Opposition and media. Also, she advised she would take legal action on any further claims. The media reporting of O'Keeffe's departure as a sacking continued, but there was no reported legal action taken by O'Keeffe. However, there were further senior departures from Land Victoria throughout 2002.

Bell, a protected whistleblower, resigned his appointment as Surveyor-General of Victoria in July 2003 and joined the World Bank.^[11] Notably, Bell, was recognized for his professional service as Surveyor-General and for his significant contributions to professions and good governance with the conferring of several awards which included a Doctorate of Applied Science Honoris Causa from RMIT University in 2003.^[12]