Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service and Integrity) Share this | Hansard source

Those opposite might think that is funny, but for those who are in trouble and who need the assistance of the Australian Public Service we all know that they are available. It often goes unnoticed that at the core of our Australian Public Service is a commitment to serve the Australian community, our families and our businesses. The Australian Public Service is world leading in its policy practice and methods.

Those opposite and we in the government may not always see eye to eye on all things but at least we should agree that the advice from the Australian Public Service is unbiased, evidence based and objective. The role of the Australian Public Service is to provide policy advice and implementation of it irrespective of which political party is on this side of the House. That is at the core of the professionalism of the Australian Public Service.

I am reminded, however, of the question that goes to the core of comments about the Australian Public Service. Yesterday, for 20 hours during the debate on the parliamentary budget officer bill we noticed a number of claims about the Australian Public Service from those opposite, those who questioned the impartiality and professionalism of the Australian Public Service simply because those opposite cannot do their own maths. In this place last night the member for Mackellar accused the Treasury of being politicised, that the opposition did not submit its costs to Treasury because it cannot trust Treasury. The member further accused Treasury of finding the $11 billion black hole because of its bias. I must assume that the member was referring to Treasury's well-known bias for facts.

Last night the member for Cowan said:

When we look back at what happened at the time of the 2010 election we see the way in which Treasury was used and directed to find every possible way to undermine and cast doubt on the figures of the opposition.

This was not an admission that the figures of the opposition were inaccurate and did not add up but an assumption that Treasury officers would behave in a biased and unprincipled way. The member for Goldstein accused secretaries of departments of aiming to 'mislead Independents in the House' in order to get them to support the current government.

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