Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of this amendment. I'm very pleased that this amendment has been proposed. I think a major theme coming from the hearings conducted by the joint select committee is the question that was first put by the Roman philosopher and poet Juvenal, which is 'Who watches the watchmen?' And the answer, under this legislation, is the inspector. The inspector is the authority who has the role of making sure that the commissioner and people within the commission don't go off the rails. We heard quite a bit of evidence from a number of jurisdictions about areas where other commissions have not acted as one would have hoped. In this case, by having a strong inspector, I think we maximise the opportunity to make sure that the NACC operates in the way that we all expect it to operate.

There are two other quick points I'd like to make. I'd like to echo the gratitude that was expressed to Mr Bruce McClintock KC, who took the time to make a very detailed submission to the joint select committee and gave some very passionate evidence and testimony which I found very convincing and I think other members of the committee found very convincing.

The last point I want to make is that, just as it's important that the NACC itself is provided with sufficient funding, it is important that the inspector is provided with sufficient funding. I think the first iteration of this bill, which has been substantially enhanced through the parliamentary processes, was underdone. It was underdone in terms of both the role of the inspector and how it was envisaged that the inspector would be resourced. I think we had very compelling testimony from the Victorian inspectorate that we actually need adequate resources for the inspector, as we need for the NACC. So I'm very pleased to see this amendment come before the Senate.