Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery, Senator Arbib. I refer to the minister’s answer to a question in the Senate yesterday in which said, ‘met regularly with all departments and all ministerial officers involved in the rollout of the stimulus package’ and that he ‘was present at discussions concerning risk in the Home Insulation Program’. I ask the minister: were representatives of the Prime Minister’s department and officers including from the Prime Minister’s own office present at any of those meetings at which safety and risk were discussed?

Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I did confirm yesterday that in my role as the Parliamentary Secretary for Government Service Delivery I did meet with departments, ministerial offices, who were involved in the delivery of the stimulus package. These meetings were designed to ensure strong reporting and lines of communication between Commonwealth agencies and state governments to provide feedback between agencies, governments and ministerial offices to ensure the rollout was proceeding smoothly and on time. Again, while the discussions did include risk to the Commonwealth and program delivery risk, they did not include fire or electrical hazard. I will need to go back and check my records as to who was at those meetings. To the best of my recollection, there was no member of the Prime Minister’s office there. There were obviously officers from the OCG, the Office of the Coordinator-General, present for a number of the meetings, but I will need to check my records.

Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. The minister’s answer is in direct contradiction of an answer he gave to the Senate yesterday, and that was that all departments and all ministerial officers were present. So the minister has either misled the Senate or he is covering up for the Prime Minister, who would have been aware, or his officers would have been aware, of all the problems with the program. So the question to the minister is: was anyone present from the Prime Minister’s office? Do you stand by your comment yesterday that all officers from all departments and the ministers— (Time expired)

Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Obviously Senator McGauran has misunderstood what I related yesterday. There were no weekly meetings; there were regular meetings. There were meetings with ministerial officers who were involved in the rollout of the stimulus. I am happy to check my records, but I do not believe anyone from the Prime Minister’s office was at these meetings. But, of course, there would have been members from the OCG, the Office of the Coordinator-General.

Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Were the issues of safety and risk in the Home Insulation Program ever raised with the Prime Minister by the minister himself, officers from the Prime Minister’s department or officers from the Prime Minister’s office? Did anyone speak to the Prime Minister?

Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That question obviously should be directed towards the minister for the environment. I would be in no position to know—

Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I raise a point of order on relevance. The question was: did this minister raise this with the Prime Minister or his officers at any stage?

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I believe the minister is answering the question. I cannot direct the minister how to answer the question. I draw the minister’s attention to the question given that there are 53 seconds remaining.

Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I thought from the question that he was talking about the minister for the environment. Again, and I hate to have to make this point, I was not a minister at the time of these meetings. I was not a minister; I was a parliamentary secretary. So next time, Senator McGauran, get your facts straight.

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The minister is entitled to be heard in silence. Minister, you may continue.

Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is fine.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You have finished?

Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is it.