Sherryl Maree Garbutt (born 5 May 1948) is a former Australian politician. Garbutt was awarded the Medal in the Order of Australia in the 2020 Australia Day Honours.
Early life
Born in Melbourne, Victoria, she attended Oak Park High School before receiving her tertiary education at the University of Melbourne (Bachelor of Arts 1968, Diploma of Education 1969) and at La Trobe University (Bachelor of Education 1979). She is also a Justice of the Peace. In 1970 she became a secondary school teacher, and from 1982 to 1989 she was electorate officer to state Labor minister Pauline Toner.
Political career
In 1989, she succeeded Toner in the seat of Greensborough in a by-election. In 1992 her seat was abolished and she transferred to Bundoora. She also entered the shadow ministry that year, serving as Shadow Minister for Community Services (1992–96), Women's Affairs (1993–96), Environment, Conservation and Land Management (1996–99), and Water Resources (1997–99). When Labor won office under Steve Bracks in 1999, she became Minister for Women's Affairs, Environment and Conservation. Although she remained Minister for Environment and Conservation, Garbutt lost responsibility for Land Victoria in the reshuffled Bracks Cabinet following the 2002 elections. Land Victoria was assigned to Planning Minister Mary Delahunty. In 2002 she transferred to Community Services. She retired in 2006.
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). 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. 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.
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. 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.