Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Given that the Prime Minister said, 'It's got to be a government for everyone; it's got to be a government for all Australians,' why has the government left out representatives of most Australians, including small business and people who rely on government services, from his Commission of Audit to advise on cuts?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The members of the Commission of Audit, led by Tony Shepherd, the head of the Business Council of Australia, are very well placed to go through the operations of government—department by department, division by division, agency by agency, branch by branch—to try to ensure that government services are as efficient and as effective as possible. Surely members opposite would want a government to be as efficient and as effective as possible. We think that government holds taxpayers' dollars on trust from them. They do not belong to us. They belong to the people of Australia, and we want to ensure that that money is spent as efficiently and as effectively as possible. That is why we have given the job of conducting the Commission of Audit to the appropriate experts.