Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

There's nothing unusual about the process that's going on here, Senator Hanson. It's a practice that governments adopt in the selection of the best people whom we believe will be able to do the job of setting up this body and making a success of it. I think you need to reference particularly section 19(2) of the bill, which sets out a matrix of the sorts of skills a person is going to need in order to do the best for the country in terms of this new body. I think when you look at that matrix, and you see the range of skills people will be looking for, you should have some confidence that the department will be able to find the people who are best suited for this job and give that list of names to the minister to make a final determination as to who will be the best people in this country to do that job.