Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I want to not only confirm and agree with the comments made by the Chair of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works, the member for Pearce, regarding the works that will be undertaken at the Australian Embassy in Beijing, but also, on this our last opportunity of the year, acknowledge, along with the chair, the great work undertaken by all members and senators of the Public Works Committee—yourself included, Mr Deputy Speaker Jenkins. I also acknowledge the secretariat. I believe that this committee is one of the hardest working committees because of the constancy of work that is expected of it. I think that may be alleviated somewhat by an amendment that has been made to the act that will provide a higher threshold in public moneys before a work attracts the scrutiny of the committee. However, along with the committee members, I want to thank Margaret, John, Raymond and Peter, because I think they do a wonderful job; I know that John is in the chamber now. I think it is important to acknowledge the secretariat because of the great work that it does.

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