Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What a fascinating conversation! What a fascinating debate we're having here! I would like to start off by offering my congratulations to Ms Wood as a fellow South Australian. She is touted as an outstanding economist, and her background would give rise to her being a great candidate for this role. So I don't think it's any major surprise that she made it through a merit process overseen by the APS—a normal merit based process that we would expect for such a position. I don't think there's anything here other than those opposite showing us again and again and again that they have neither respect for nor commitment to women. I can see no other reason why you would have such a problem with Ms Wood as opposed to another candidate.

The point has been raised by Senator Canavan that he knew more than Ms Wood while he was a graduate in the Productivity Commission, that he spent time as a graduate in the Productivity Commission and that he was probably better placed than her. He points to the fact that she has run an independent think tank. In case anyone is unsure, that's a place where you independently think. That is exactly what we want from the Productivity Commission. We're not going to continue on the same pathway as those opposite, who commissioned report after report from the Productivity Commission and proceeded to ignore every last one of them. What we're doing here—what the Labor government is doing here—is looking to the Productivity Commission for ideas, for that independent thinking and for that investigation into critical issues. So, no, it doesn't seem particularly surprising to me that we would pick someone who's had that kind of depth of experience.