Santo Santoro (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

The government will oppose this amendment, which again seeks to introduce overly prescriptive criteria. The government stands on its record in terms of the way it has made appointments, not just to the National Health and Medical Research Council but to many other bodies where appointments are made on a very regular and indeed frequent basis. We do appoint on merit. We do so with great probity and, invariably, with great openness and transparency. And we will continue to do so.