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

I withdraw. The Minister for Finance and Deregulation has repeatedly said that Mr Gonski had made no recommendation. On the ABC's World Today yesterday, she said:

He made no recommendations.

She said that on ABC Radio yesterday. It is now revealed in today's Australian that Mr Gonski did in fact make recommendations. The article quotes Mr Gonski as saying:

My job was to advise the government on what the board thought. The board said they wanted an insider and they designated by majority that the insider was Peter.

'Peter' means Peter Costello.

This is why standing orders must be suspended. The Minister for Finance and Deregulation is running around saying that there was no recommendation from David Gonski about the chairmanship of the Future Fund, yet Mr Gonski himself, who was engaged by the government, has now declared that in fact he did make a recommendation—that recommendation being Mr Costello. Suspending standing orders is so urgent because this represents the way this government operates. We have to stop this government from more incompetence; we have to stop this government from any more acts of poor corporate governance involving taxpayers' money—and we are doing so.

Brian Watson has belled the cat. He said—

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