Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I appreciate that, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker. I acknowledge that it does fall under the Chief Government Whip. However, it is an allocation from the department of finance, and I am sure the department of finance would be aware of the location issues of the government members’ secretariat and, given the government’s commitment to public accountability and transparency, I am sure there would be no problem in reporting back to the House.

I would like to now move on to the matter of media monitoring. In 2004-05 the bill for media monitoring in ministers’ offices and departments was over $8 million. It is of some considerable concern to me that a lot of these media monitoring costs will be ministers’ offices and departments ordering exactly the same clips or asking to see exactly the same shots of the news. Does the department of finance, as the department responsible for minimising unnecessary government expenditure, have a protocol or a requirement to ensure that unnecessary duplication of media monitoring does not occur?

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