Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Goldstein for the question, and I refer to my previous answer to the member for Melbourne, in which I outlined the government's position on this. The breaches in confidentiality by PwC are indeed extraordinary, outrageous and deserving of complete condemnation, not just by the government but by all Australians, I believe. To have a brief that is then turned into an opportunity is what occurred here, and, of course, the Treasury has referred the matter to the Australian Federal Police.

The PwC breach did not arise, I repeat, as a result of an active procurement or Commonwealth contract, which we have. I'm very concerned about it. I repeat: prior to the election, one of the things which we spoke about and which there has been some criticism of is an increase in the use of the Public Service, but one of the things I want to do as Prime Minister is restore the Public Service to the primacy that it should be in. The Public Service should be the body that provides the primary advice to government, not the private sector and not any other interest, be it industrial or community groups. Everyone can have input into government policy through the political process and that's important, but the fact that—

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