Sophie Scamps (Mackellar, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The review of public sector board appointments found that the current appointments process is not fit for purpose and often looks like patronage and nepotism. The review found:

… the public's confidence in the integrity of appointments is so low that the clarity and assurance of legislation is required to rebuild trust and embed integrity in board appointment processes.

Can the government explain why they ignored this recommendation to legislate an independent appointment process, instead releasing a seven-dot-point non-binding framework?

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thanks to the honourable member for her question, which I'll answer in my responsibility for representing Minister Gallagher in this place. We take our responsibilities to appoint the best people we can very seriously. Certainly, the appointments that I've made in the Treasury portfolio are appointments that I'm very proud of. We have reformed the system of appointments to make them more about merit and the national interest.

When we came to office, ministers had virtually unchecked power to reward people and fill boards with political favourites. By the end of the previous government, we saw some particularly shameless behaviour in terms of jobs for mates. This government did commission the Briggs review, as the honourable member knows, and in response we've instituted whole-of-government reform through the new framework that the honourable member refers to. Our framework actually goes further than the Briggs review itself recommended. We're extending it beyond government boards to cover departmental secretaries, agency heads and statutory office holders across the Commonwealth. The seven principles of the framework establish that all appointments must be made on merit in the public interest, with ministers fully accountable for each decision that they make. Under the framework, appointments must reflect Australia's diversity, uphold integrity and high standards, and be made through flexible, proportionate processes that are informed by rigorous skills and capability assessments. That's all underpinned by mandatory transparency and reporting requirements, and that transparency is how we make sure ministers and the government are accountable to the Australian people for the quality of the appointments that we make.

We put in place a new system of appointments that will get the best people into the right roles so that government bodies can deliver for Australians. That means real accountability to cabinet, to parliament and to the Australian people—as it should be. We welcome the honourable member's scrutiny on government appointments, but we think that the best model is to have ministers responsible and accountable, in this way, to the Australian people for the appointments that we make.