Pat Farmer (Macarthur, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On 1 April this year the Daily Telegraph reported that 25 parliamentary security staff positions would be made redundant. In Senate estimates on 25 May this year, Mr Alan Thompson, Secretary of the Department of Parliamentary Services, stated that this decision was taken prior to a comprehensive review by the Attorney-General’s Department into appropriate security levels in this House. How can the government continue to say that the 2009 budget was designed to support jobs in this country when 25 Parliamentary Staff employees will be forced into unemployment queues? As there are over 860,000 visitors to Parliament House every year, how can the government confidently say that they know that they are not reducing security to dangerous levels, particularly in light of the fact that they have not yet completed a comprehensive audit due to be released a little bit later on this year?

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