David Pocock (ACT, Independent) | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of Canberrans, I would like to recognise some of the outstanding work that happens in this place and thank senators for their important contribution. In March 2023, we saw the Finance and Public Administration References Committee begin an inquiry into the integrity of consulting services, and I believe we saw the Senate at its best. We saw Senator O'Neill, Senator Barbara Pocock, Senator Colbeck and others forensically examining allegations and goings-on at PwC. Ten days of public hearings, 61 submissions, 129 responses to questions on notice—a huge body of work. And we've seen them at it again: Senator O'Neill, Senator Barbara Pocock and Senator Scarr looking at KPMG. This is what the Senate can do, and I really thank colleagues for their important work on this, holding these companies to account and shining light on what is happening.

The other area I would like to mention is aged care, where we've seen Senator Allman-Payne and Senator Ruston do outstanding work to shine a light on what is happening to older Australians, to raise concerns about the government's assessment process for Support at Home and about the algorithm that really isn't delivering for older Australians. For me, it reinforces just how important it is that on these sorts of issues we have a multipartisan approach, that as a Senate we use our powers and we use them well to shine a light on these issues and then to make sure that we are doing the work that headlines simply cannot do.