Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

This minister allowed a $55,000 departmental contract to go to a private sector company, Global Access Partners, which has strong links to the private health insurance industry. We had the minister admit that in fact he was briefed on this proposal not once but several times and that it was in his incoming ministerial government brief. Despite the fact that the minister claims to have rejected the proposal, work not only continued beyond his claim that he rejected it but also continues to this day. The contract with Global Access Partners has not been cancelled, the work has not ceased and in fact the departmental secretary stated clearly at Senate estimates that they were awaiting a project report. So my questions, of course, to the minister are these. Is this really just a frolic by your top officials? If it is just a frolic, what disciplinary action have you then taken against them? If you have learned your lesson on secret task forces, how come the task force is actually continuing? Are you going to make this report public? (Time expired)

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