Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Seniors) Share this | Hansard source

Not at all. It is because of your behaviour previously. The long and the short of it is you might remember next time that, if you do not want to close down this place, you must leave one government member behind.

To go back to my question and to reiterate, it concerned Mr Ken Henry. I still do not have an answer and I specifically ask for one. Is he a member of the Public Service? If not, when did he leave the Public Service and what is the nature of his contract with the government via section 67? Who wrote the brief for the Governor-General? Who put together the information for her to make that appointment? I think that is a very important point to have on the public record. I repeat: how is it possible that you can ask the Governor-General to appoint someone to a position of $535,000 a year with no job specification, no description of the duties they will have to carry out and no notification to the general public as to why it was necessary to have this very special method of appointment? I make the point that it is special. I asked you for one name of anybody who had been appointed to a political position like this and you cannot supply me with one. All the other people that you have given me the names of are perfectly ordinary appointments under section 67 and I am perfectly familiar with the operation of that. This is an exceptional appointment. You, Parliamentary Secretary, have admitted here today that there are no terms and conditions that have been established. It is all going to be a nice chat when he comes back from leave and we do not even know the date on which he is to return. Would you also supply me with the date on which he will return?

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