Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Bernardi, this was a competitive tender process. I think you may forget this on the other side of the chamber, but it was actually based on the model that you put in place yourselves—a competitive model that you put in place while you were in government. So you may want to consider that. The tender and the tender documents were all done at arm’s length from the minister by the department. Star ratings were taken into account, and I will reiterate that, but again it was done by the department, not by the minister and certainly not by the government. We think we have the balance right. This will provide a personalised service for job seekers. On top of that, just remember that through the jobs and training compact people who are made redundant will now have immediate access to Job Services Australia, which was not the case under the coalition. (Time expired)