Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Senator Scullion. I refer to the minister's claim in the Senate last week that 'staff morale at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet is at an all-time high and staff are delighted to be working for the new government'. Was this before or after staff in the Indigenous Affairs area of his department were forced to reapply for their own jobs through a spill and fill process?

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I can only speak for those in the Indigenous area because that is my portfolio. I had breakfast with them this morning. There were no complaints this morning during my very warm breakfast with those people, who I think are doing an absolute cracker of a job. It is terrific to be able to have such a good working relationship with the department. In this very tough terrain as we move through these policy areas they continue to provide the most excellent advice in the most buoyant of circumstances.

Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Can the minister confirm that 236 staff in the Indigenous Affairs area of his department have been made redundant?

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, I cannot confirm that exact number. I would have to take that on notice in the interest of ensuring that I provide an exact number to the Senate. I will take that number on notice.

Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Minister, who has got it right—the minister who cut half a billion from Indigenous Affairs funding and says staff morale is sky-high or the departmental officer who told The Canberra Times that staff morale is in the doldrums?

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am asked to make a choice about a source. Is my department all depressed and horrible, as they would have it, or is my department, as I assert, getting on with the job and buoyant because they know they are working for an organisation and a government that is changing the lives of our first Australians? If it is a choice between one unnamed source and the departmental people whom I met with over breakfast this morning, I will back my department every day.