Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration) Share this | Hansard source

In doing so, would the parliamentary secretary also find out whether or not there is a forecasted budget allocation for any future completion of payments to GSL? We cannot work out why on earth ACM ever received $5.7 million. It came from something in a process that the Australian National Audit Office actually found when we had the change from ACM to GSL. Even though the change is only meant to occur if a competing operator provides better value for money, the change happened notwithstanding that ACM was still providing better value for money because the department failed to revisit their figures. Could the parliamentary secretary confirm—and I appreciate this may well be on notice in the same fashion—whether there is any budget allocation for any future completion payments to other operators? Has the government budgeted in any way to cover itself against legal action by ACM now that it has been revealed by the Australian National Audit Office that the contract was transferred away from them even though they were still satisfying the better value for money test?

See this speech in context