Mr ABBOTT (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs)(11.46 a.m.) —The member for Denison (Mr Kerr) does raise two important issues. The sad truth is that it is impossible to control what members of one's staff do in their own time and outside of one's own office. I think I can give the chamber an assurance that none of the misdeeds of my former staff member took place in my office, certainly not in office hours, for the simple reason that it is an open plan office and anything untoward would immediately have been noticed by the other staff members who were sitting around him. The misdeeds took place out of the office and on the mobile phone, to the best of my knowledge, and I think I can reasonably make the assumption that that is the case.

The member for Denison also says, `How on earth could I have possibly employed this person?' Yes, that is also a fair question. All I say in my defence is that this individual was able to persuade a majority of a Liberal Party preselection panel—and it was not in a hard luck seat which no-one wants to run in, like Oxley, but a state seat which was traditionally a Liberal seat. It was a hotly contested preselection, he emerged victorious and I guess I took the view that anyone who was good enough for the Liberal Party at that level would probably be an appropriate person for me. He was also a member of Manly Council, elected by the people of Manly. So I think I had reasonable grounds for assuming that the man was competent, capable and trustworthy. Certainly there is no denying his competence. It is just that what he did while in my office over the last few months of his employment was an act of treachery.

Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Truss) —I would remind the House that any questions in relation to a particular staff member whose salary was not covered by the estimates under debate would need to be relevant to the issues before the chamber.