Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I assume from that, Senator Lundy, you are guaranteeing that the Queensland government and all their public servants will come along and give evidence. As I was just about to say, I have not been involved in putting this motion together, but it is a fairly good bet that Mr Beattie will prohibit any of his public servants—any of the people with the real knowledge; any of the people with the facts and information—appearing before this committee. I understand that Senator Lundy is guaranteeing that the Queensland government will instruct their public servants to come along and give evidence. If that is what you are doing, Senator Lundy, thank you very much, because it would be fascinating to get some of the public servants involved. I have spoken to a few of the public servants and they have told me that they have never been involved in a more ridiculous infrastructure program. I asked them, ‘Why don’t you say something about this?’ and they said, ‘In Queensland at the moment, if any public servant even indicates by the blink of an eye that they do not happen to agree with Mr Beattie and his 60-seat majority in Queensland, their futures as public servants are very, very limited.’