Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will not keep the Senate much longer. The article that I mentioned in The Canberra Times, under the heading of transparency—for those who want to have a look at it, it is The Canberra Times, Tuesday, 7 February 2017 at page 7—amongst other things, says:

Senior public servants control most government spending. They decide which businesses are invited to tender for government work; they sit on assessment panels for contracts and jobs. Their conflicts of interest are a far greater threat to good government. Yet the public knows almost nothing of them. Their conflicts, and expenses, are disclosed in secret to agency heads and no one else.

It's inevitable that this lack of transparency encourages indulgences, and worse. Most senior public servants are, of course, upstanding and deserving of respect; indeed, some sacrifice a more luxurious lifestyle to work in government. Others, however, will succumb to temptation. A little more public scrutiny would go a long way towards reducing the number of those who do.

That is my point. I do think this authority could be expanded in a relatively simple way to bring about that accountability. Sure, there is some reporting and some accountability, as is mentioned in this article, but it is not something the taxpayers know about. I just think this is the right time to widen the net in a very broad way that can be done relatively simply. The amendments that I propose are not complex. The minister has acknowledged that I had referred to the fact that we cannot impose the cost in a bill in the Senate at this time, but it gives an intention and, really, a direction to the government that this is how you go about paying for what I accept would be a fairly substantial increase in cost. It is important that we do this.

The minister, I think, mentioned there have not been a lot of complaints. I am not sure what part of the world the minister moves in, but, everywhere I go, people raise with me the money that is paid to presenters on the ABC.