Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I just want to quickly address something. I will not take the whole five minutes, I can assure the member for Petrie. Some questions were asked of the parliamentary secretary about organ and tissue donation. I understand—although we are happy either way—as to the etiquette, that the parliamentary secretaries cannot be asked questions. But I think he is more than happy to talk with you and answer them.

Let me say, for the record, though: it is not an appropriate forum for us to be discussing an individual past employee’s record. We are quite happy to make available to you the information that is appropriately available publicly. I am also quite happy to explore whether a briefing can be provided to the opposition. But I do not think that talking about an individual employee—a statutory office-holder, actually, who has resigned—is an appropriate thing for us to be canvassing in this sort of environment. We would not do that in question time and I do not think it is appropriate for us to do it here.

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