Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The Minister for Finance and Deregulation and the Treasurer have sought to engage outside consultants to appoint a chairman of the Future Fund. They went through a process—this is why standing orders must be suspended—to find the most appropriate person. They engaged an outside consulting firm and, when they were not satisfied with that, they engaged Mr Gonski to give them a recommendation on whom the guardians themselves believed to be the very best person to chair the Future Fund. Mr Gonski reported back to the Minister for Finance and Deregulation that the view of the guardians is in fact that Peter Costello is the best person to do it.

Standing orders must be suspended because the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, only a few days ago, led people to believe—and I am prepared to quote her—that there was no recommendation from anyone to appoint Peter Costello. But the fact of the matter is that, even though the Minister for Finance and Deregulation deliberately misled not only the Australian people—

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