Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, during the Senate estimates process, it was a surprise to the Department of Immigration and Border Protection that the taxpayer-funded departmental website border.gov.au was linked to the Liberal Party website. The link was on a page where people would have been seeking advice about options to reunite with their parents. Instead, they would have been pushed from the departmental website to the Liberal Party of Australia's website to learn more about Liberal Party policy and the immigration minister, and to be encouraged to donate to the Liberal Party. I have already referred this matter to the Australian Public Service Commission for investigation, but the minister is yet to apologise for the gross oversight on his departmental website.

Did the minister or anyone from his office ask for the link to be placed on the departmental website? How were party politics allowed to play out on a taxpayer-funded department website? How did the link end up on the departmental website three times? Was the minister aware of the links before they were mentioned in Senate estimates? How long were the links online before being torn down during Senate estimates? Who was responsible for the links being posted to the departmental website? Can the minister assure the Australian public that his department will never again be politicised like this?

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