John Faulkner (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I do not find that funny. Ms Penfold went on to say:

When the Protective Security Coordination Centre undertook its review of the arrangements, it was actually doing a risk assessment. It took account of the competing interests and priorities—

You would think safety was going to be the main one—

One was to secure the areas close to the building, and the other was to do it without making life completely impossible for the people who have to use the building. So there was a balance of convenience ...

Ms Penfold, after answering a number of other rather good, I thought, questions from me, went on to explain to the committee about the issue of the passes retracting the bollards and how the system was designed. She said:

It was designed on the basis of a report that was received in 2003, which referred to ‘authorised people’ being able to access the slip-roads. When we started working on how to implement that we pretty much met a black hole—

Not the ones that the bollards go into—

Frankly, I think that was an easy phrase that had been put in to move the thing along. So we had to start from scratch with the structure pretty much in place, and get a new set of advice. And the new set of advice was that on a risk management approach we could let pass holders access those slip-roads at certain times.

So, if the advice does not suit, you get a new set of advice and, eventually, you get advice that does suit. That appears to be what happened; that was the evidence, anyway, that was given at the Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee. It was very interesting evidence that was received by the committee; what was unexpected was the information that more than 7,000 photographic passes are able to retract the bollards. That was never the intention at all in spending $11.7 million on enhancing the security of Parliament House. We should not underestimate the importance of the security of a building like this. We have responsibilities and obligations to make sure of that to those people who work in this building, not just members and senators.

Question agreed to.