Senator FAULKNER (Leader of the Opposition in the Senate)(5.48 p.m.) —I move:

(34)   Clause 31, page 15 (after line 25), after subclause (2), insert:

   (2A)   If an Agency Head, the Commissioner or the Merit Protection Commissioner receives any non-Commonwealth remuneration for performing duties pertaining to their offices, then the Agency Minister may give a notice in writing to the Agency Head, Commissioner or Merit Protection Commissioner in relation to the whole, or a specified part, of the remuneration.

   (2B)   The amount notified by the Agency Minister:

      (a)   is taken to have been received by the Agency Head, Commissioner or Merit Protection Commissioner, as the case may be, on behalf of the Commonwealth; and

      (b)   may be recovered by the Commonwealth from the Agency Head, Commissioner or Merit Protection Commissioner as a debt in a court of competent jurisdiction.

The opposition proposes this amendment on the age-old principle of what is good for the goose is good for the gander. In other words, if it is good enough for certain provisions to apply to APS employees receiving any non-Commonwealth remuneration for performing duties as an APS employee, we see absolutely no reason why these should not apply to others—that is, an agency head, the Public Service Commissioner or the Merit Protection Commissioner. I would hope the committee would see good sense in this particular clause of the bill being appropriately extended in this way.