John Hogg (President) Share this | Hansard source

The answer to the honourable senator's question is as follows:

I refer to Senate Question on Notice 682 (Senator Faulkner), the response to which we provided to the Senate on 8 July 2011.

One component of the Questions related to terracotta pots in and around Parliament House.

DPS officers have now become aware of some further information about terracotta pots, and we advise that some terracotta pots may have been disposed of via public auction around 1995/1996 by the Joint House Department.

While we can find no record of the transaction we have become aware that the Parliament House Construction Authority originally acquired around 1300 pots. DPS records indicate that we have around 900. The estimated date of disposal is based upon information provided by former staff members.