Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Housing and Urban Development) Share this | Hansard source

A $2 million contract without a tender to the Australia Business Arts Foundation. The article continues:

So when the minister tells us he is going to have an internal review by one officer, a secret review by one officer after the fact, you would think that there is reason to be a little concerned. I do think there is a need for a national, comprehensive assessment of the administration of the Indigenous Heritage Program in this country, but not a secret, grubby, behind-closed-doors little arrangement which Senator Ian Campbell can manipulate to suit his particular, personal, Liberal Party vote-buying exercises.

That is the real question that I think needs to be addressed here. The officers have taken a bit of a while to convey that information to the minister. He obviously has a hearing problem. Clearly, the message is that the plan here is a secret, behind-closed-doors review where you talk to people who you have determined in advance will give you the answers you want to hear. ‘Appropriate’ people does not mean everybody; it means the ones you want to get the answers from and who will give you the answers that you want to hear. We have a circumstance here where I think it would be appropriate that the amendment was either moved or withdrawn and we moved on. I think that, given the circumstances that the government has tried to put to the chamber, at the moment there is really no point in spending any more time on this because the government’s position is so pitiful.