Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Again, that wasn't an answer to my question, but I'm assuming that I'm going to ask questions and you are just going to read out the response that is provided to you. Again, though, let's see what we've established. You have a termination power exercisable against secret, non-disallowable, ministerially-set standards. So, basically, where we get to is: termination, at pleasure, by a minister. This is an incredibly dangerous path to go down, for the Australian people. It is one thing to set termination standards in legislation, and have the parliament and, quite frankly, others able to review them. This is a fundamental deviation from this, to the point whereby we are never ever going to know what is actually in those standards, because the Senate, the House of Representatives and the Australian public are never ever going to see them. So tell me, Minister: can the performance standards—the secret performance standards, which we are never going to see—be amended or replaced during an officeholder's term?