House of Representatives
House of Representatives
House of Representatives
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Monday, 3 June 2013 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 21<br />
Dr Leigh: Madam Deputy Speaker, I raise a point<br />
<strong>of</strong> order on relevance. I would urge you to draw the<br />
member back to the matter before the chair.<br />
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The parliamentary<br />
secretary has a point. The member was straying quite<br />
significantly from the—<br />
Mr Briggs interjecting—<br />
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member's time has<br />
expired.<br />
Dr LEIGH (Fraser—Parliamentary Secretary to the<br />
Prime Minister) (11:52): Too <strong>of</strong>ten the crucial work <strong>of</strong><br />
our nation's public servants goes unnoticed and goes<br />
unthanked. As the member for Fraser I am pleased to<br />
say that many <strong>of</strong> these hardworking public servants are<br />
my constituents. I myself have been seconded to<br />
Treasury and have seen firsthand the hard work <strong>of</strong><br />
those public servants. We on this side <strong>of</strong> the <strong>House</strong><br />
believe in a frank and fearless Public Service in the<br />
great Westminster tradition. Those opposite would<br />
prefer to have a flaccid and fearful Public Service. That<br />
is their ideal <strong>of</strong> public service.<br />
It is clear why those opposite have spent three years<br />
waging a smear campaign against Treasury. It is<br />
because they have an ever-widening costings black<br />
hole. They are therefore desperate to avoid scrutiny <strong>of</strong><br />
their costings, and they see the b<strong>of</strong>fins and the bean<br />
counters as an obstacle to that. At the 2010 election,<br />
the member for North Sydney concocted bogus<br />
allegations <strong>of</strong> Treasury politicisation to avoid<br />
submitting coalition policies to Treasury and Finance.<br />
Instead, the opposition had their policies costed by a<br />
private accounting firm, who overlooked that they had<br />
an $11 billion black hole. That private accounting firm<br />
was subsequently fined by the Institute <strong>of</strong> Chartered<br />
Accountants for breaching pr<strong>of</strong>essional standards.<br />
Despite that, the member for Goldstein has in this<br />
chamber claimed that those faux costings were 'as good<br />
as you can get anywhere in the country, including in<br />
Treasury'.<br />
On 19 September, I was witness in this chamber to a<br />
savage attack by the member for Goldstein against the<br />
institution <strong>of</strong> Treasury and against then Treasury<br />
Secretary Ken Henry, who, as honourable members<br />
know, was appointed by Treasurer Costello to that<br />
position. The member for Goldstein claimed the $11<br />
billion black hole was:<br />
… something fabricated with the use <strong>of</strong> Treasury <strong>of</strong>ficials to<br />
give government a political advantage.<br />
The member for Mackellar—who in 1992 shot to<br />
prominence after attacking public servant Trevor<br />
Boucher—joined in, saying:<br />
… this Parliamentary Budget Office is something that is<br />
simply linked to the coattails <strong>of</strong> Treasury.<br />
She went on:<br />
CHAMBER<br />
I made the point that Treasury and the head <strong>of</strong> Treasury had<br />
been rewarded for things that they had done to assist the<br />
government.<br />
… … …<br />
… it is politicised and that is why we cannot trust them.<br />
The member for Mackellar has even said <strong>of</strong> former<br />
Treasury Secretary Ken Henry:<br />
He served the government very well in the latter stages <strong>of</strong> his<br />
appointment, particularly when it came to assessing the<br />
budget savings that were put forward by the opposition prior<br />
to the last election.<br />
This is like a rich kid who gets a maths question wrong<br />
and, instead <strong>of</strong> accepting the right answer, goes to the<br />
principal asking for the teacher to be sacked.<br />
The opposition in the last election were badly out in<br />
their costings, and their pretext now is that budget<br />
forecasts cannot be relied on. The member for North<br />
Sydney has said:<br />
The numbers are just not believable. It is fundamentally a<br />
dishonest budget.<br />
… … …<br />
I don't believe they are Treasury numbers. They are Wayne<br />
Swan's numbers.<br />
Treasury Secretary Martin Parkinson has directly<br />
rejected these allegations. He said on 21 May:<br />
I can say on behalf <strong>of</strong> David Tune, the secretary <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Department <strong>of</strong> Finance and myself—and get this right—were<br />
PEFO to have been released on the 14th <strong>of</strong> May, it would<br />
have contained the numbers that were in the budget.<br />
PEFO is produced independently by Treasury and<br />
Finance in caretaker period, without political oversight.<br />
Dr Parkinson has told us in crystal clear terms that the<br />
numbers in the budget represent the best pr<strong>of</strong>essional<br />
estimates <strong>of</strong> Treasury and Finance. They have not been<br />
tampered with by the Deputy Prime Minister as those<br />
opposite would have you believe. They are the best<br />
estimates <strong>of</strong> honest and hardworking public servants.<br />
The member for North Sydney continued his<br />
extraordinary slur, saying:<br />
I would have expected Martin Parkinson to say nothing<br />
different yesterday because he is, quite appropriately, a<br />
servant <strong>of</strong> the government.<br />
This is continuing in the same vein as the members for<br />
Goldstein and Mackellar. He should withdraw that<br />
claim. Attacking Treasury is not only unfounded; it is<br />
also weak. In public debate, public servants do not<br />
have the opportunity to defend themselves as we in this<br />
place do. It is wrong to treat them like a political<br />
football.<br />
On the other side <strong>of</strong> politics, Senator Sinodinos, my<br />
opposition counterpoint as shadow parliamentary<br />
secretary to the Leader <strong>of</strong> the Opposition, has worked<br />
hard in the Department <strong>of</strong> Treasury and who I think<br />
knows as— (Time expired)