Page 2177 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 3 August 2016
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So the Canberra Liberals will provide an additional $3 million to the Auditor-General over our first term of government. There will be a balance then between enabling her to do more performance audits but also doing public interest disclosure investigations. We will work with the Auditor-General, through the Speaker as an officer of the parliament, to make sure that the money she gets is sufficient for her and is discrete money to conduct increased public interest disclosure inquiries in her role as a sector-wide disclosure officer.
As I have previously announced in this place and made clear, we will restore the funding that has been cut from the AFP as well. Obviously when these matters do come to light, and we are aware that some have in relation to the Brumbies issue, they are referred on to the AFP. One of the problems, though, is that the AFP is resource constrained. The AFP is trying to do many different new roles in relation to domestic violence particularly and the scourge of violence. But at the same time this is the government that has cut jobs from the AFP.
I note that there is a lot of hoo-ha from the other side of politics—on those benches opposite—talking about jobs. Andrew Barr cut police jobs through his minister Joy Burch. It is the Labor Party and their Greens coalition partner who this week are talking about government integrity, talking about domestic violence. They cut money from the police—cut jobs, Madam Speaker. That resulted in job losses. There are people out there now who are unemployed, potentially, because this mob cut jobs.
We know the reason that they did that is to try to fund their other priorities, including the tram. But their hypocrisy, when they talk about integrity measures, when they talk about dealing with domestic violence and ice while at the same time cutting resources from police, is extraordinary. We will restore that gross breach of faith with our police. At the same time—this goes to my point about integrity—the police minister’s office was leaking sensitive information to the CFMEU, an organisation under a significant cloud and an organisation that bankrolls not only the Labor Party but also the Greens.
The Greens are very pious about these issues, but they take tens of thousands of dollars from the CFMEU, an organisation under a significant cloud, an organisation that has information leaked to it by the Labor Party police minister’s office. Then the Greens raise concerns about donations. I remind Mr Rattenbury that the CFMEU are significant developers in this town. They have done a series of developments. Mr Rattenbury in his speech will probably talk about donations and where they come from. Have a look at whether the CFMEU have done developments. If they have, I invite you to return that money if that is your position. But I think what we might see is a little bit of hypocrisy on that issue.
There are concerns, Madam Speaker. As I alluded to yesterday when I was speaking, there are a significant number of concerns that have been raised about not just politicians but also about what is happening within the bureaucracy in particular areas. That is why the public service commissioner needs to be fully independent, needs to be divorced from government, so that if there are issues raised, or if people want to raise issues, they can go to the public service commissioner knowing full well that that is a fully independent body. That fully independent person would not actually be
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