Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

You are quite right, Senator Forshaw. Professor Fels, the gentleman that the government appointed to head up the committee looking at the key issues around privacy and protection, was engaged with the committee in a very valuable discussion about the issues that were raised and about ways we could work together to improve them. The main issue, though, was the speed with which the government were moving. They were determined to push through this legislation. They had a three-day committee hearing. We were meeting on the last night until very late just to get some processes completed.

My questions today were about the process, about the letting of tenders and also about the speed of this process. The minister could not come up with a response to the issue of speed. He talked about the issue of tenders but did not answer the question about whether there had been any financial investigation into the possible cost of letting tenders before the infrastructure is clearly defined. We asked those questions and again we did not get answers. We hope that there will be an effective process put in place around this whole issue that balances the issues of privacy and accountability. Minister No. 3, do not accuse us of being friends of fraud. (Time expired)