Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Well, well! Let's see how this works. I am quite happy with this proposal, but while you have Nigel Hadgkiss, the worst ever appointment to a senior Public Service job in the country, this will be a battle. This guy has got complete contempt for the Australian parliament, the Senate and the estimates process. This is the guy who told estimates he does not keep a diary and then, when there was a freedom-of-information request, he provided a bit out of his diary. The guy tells lies. The guy is not fit to be in the position he is in. I have not agreed with a lost that Senator Xenophon has said tonight, but I certainly agree with Senator Xenophon that this guy should not be in charge of anything when it comes to integrity. He should not be in charge of looking after supposedly unbiased approaches on workers' rights. He has a terrible reputation. His actions have been biased. His actions have been criticised by the judiciary. He is absolutely hopeless. To get him to actually look after anything other than what he wants to look after will be something we will need to look at. I look forward to the next estimates. Trying to keep this guy on the straight and narrow is a very difficult job, but I will give it a good shot. I will be looking at this very closely to make sure that Nigel Hadgkiss actually does the job that he is supposed to do, because for the last number of years he has not been doing it. He has been setting up a little team of cronies within Fair Work Building and Construction and he has been setting up an agenda that he wants to pursue regardless of what the act does. All this mob over here, this rabble of a government, this rabble sitting opposite want to do is cut loose on workers' wages and conditions. We will support this amendment because it is about time there was accountability for Nigel Hadgkiss. We need accountability on what is the most unaccountable senior public servant in the country.