Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Just briefly, I do not share the senator’s love of the joint Senate estimates process. In my view, I am not sure that it works. I take her point, but I do make the point that the alternative is for the government to seek to make one agency deliver all services to Indigenous people and see us develop the sorts of problems we developed with ATSIC of underfunded services. I strongly believe in mainstreaming and making all departments deliver to Indigenous people as citizens of this country. As long as we look to do that—which I think is a shared objective—we are going to have the problem about departmental accountability. But the answer still is that we will ask Ms Macklin’s office to ring DEEWR and get them to ring you. The answer may well be unsatisfactory, but you will have an answer as to when you are likely to get the information you are seeking.