John Murphy (Lowe, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I seek the indulgence of the House to make a very short statement prior to asking you two questions.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Indulgence is granted.

John Murphy (Lowe, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you. Last night at about 7 pm my wife sought to purchase a hot meal from the staff cafeteria. My wife questioned the little amount of hot food on offer at dinnertime to customers and she was advised, ‘That is it for the night.’ At 12 pm today my wife questioned the size of the food portions she was offered by the staff at the cafeteria when she ordered beef stroganoff and rice for lunch. My wife was told by cafeteria staff that management had told staff they had been serving big food portions and the manager had instructed them to make the portions smaller. Staff suggested my wife take this matter up with the cafeteria manager. Upon raising this matter with the manager, the manager took my wife into the kitchen, blaming DPS for not making the new provider aware of the impact on the cafeteria of peak periods like parliamentary sittings and Senate estimates. Moreover, the cafeteria manager insulted my wife by telling her, ‘If you don’t like it, bring your own lunch.’ He then walked off. Is this the attitude customers have to put up with from the new provider of the staff cafeteria? Would you inquire into these matters?

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the parliamentary secretary for his question. I have been made aware of several teething problems with both of the new contracts.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Why doesn’t he just raise it with the Governor-General?

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I simply say to the member for Sturt, as I was going to say to the whole chamber, it really has nothing to do with the executive government. It is the business of parliament and the buck stops with me and the President. I am treating this seriously. The House Committee will be meeting on Monday, and the new contracts are well and truly on the agenda. We will be looking at mechanisms so that we can make sure that all complaints, from the serious level of the complaint raised by the parliamentary secretary through to all the teething problems that there have been, can be looked at in a proper way. I will make sure that the Secretary of the Department of Parliamentary Services looks into the matters raised by the parliamentary secretary and I will get back to him.