Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much to the member for Mackellar. I recognise, through your private members' bill, that this is an issue you feel very strongly about. That being said, again I won't be supporting these amendments.

Under the bill I can't appoint someone as a commissioner for Infrastructure Australia unless I am satisfied that that person has the appropriate qualifications, knowledge, skills and experience, and that they have gone through a publicly-advertised merit-based selection process, which has included, in boards I have appointed people to previously, a panel. In fact, it's normally through the Public Service Commissioner that the panel is done, so to some extent it's already happening. That is the process we've embedded in this bill in relation to the commissioners.

As you know, we've let you know more publicly that Lynelle Briggs is undertaking a look at the way in which board appointments are done more broadly. We're not going to pre-empt that process because that process would apply across the board to all ministers and all portfolios, not just to specific areas.

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