Senator O'BRIEN (6:57 PM) —I rise in the adjournment debate this evening to respond to some matters which were raised by Senators Tierney, Ellison and Abetz today, firstly in question time and then in taking note, in relation to a question I asked during question time last Monday. Last Monday I asked questions relating to the government's new employment services contract arrangements. In a supplementary question, I referred to Allhands Hire Pty Ltd which, as I said then, was selected to provide employment services when it had financial problems with unprofitable contracts and was put up for sale only days after DEETYA informed the company of its success in the tender process.

In answer to Senator Tierney's question about this matter today, Senator Ellison said:

The allegation was that that company was going to be sold and that there was some financial difficulty thereby and also casting doubt on the government's Job Network process. Let me tell the Senate that that company is not for sale.

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As a result of that, it has lost two clients.

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A member of the family who contacted the department today has said that approaches were made to the company for the sale of it and that there was no aspect of it being sold.

Following that, I went back to the primary documents that have been conveyed to me which relate to the very question I asked last Monday. The first was a copy of a letter which has been sent to a business in Queensland. That business has forwarded that document but has removed its name from it. It is a letter from Lloyds Business Brokers dated 16 February 1998 and it is signed by Mr Rudy Weber. The letter has a reference `Re: business for sale' and says:

Thank you for your expression of interest, and for completing our `Confidentiality Agreement'. The business we have been appointed to sell is ALLHANDS HIRE. A copy of the Business Profile is enclosed for your perusal.

I do not want to attempt in any way to mislead the Senate in this manner. I seek leave for this letter to be incorporated in Hansard .

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT (Senator Knowles) —Is leave granted?

Senator Ian Macdonald —No, not at the moment, Madam Acting Deputy President. I have just come on duty and I have not had a chance to look at it.

Senator O'BRIEN —We did deal with it and I thought that there was no problem with it. I am happy if it needs to be considered further.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT —We will come back to it later.

Senator O'BRIEN —Enclosed with that was a copy of the first page of a letter from the Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs headed `commercial in confidence' and addressed to Mr Lance Allen Long, Allhands Hire Pty Ltd. I will not recite the address. I am also seeking leave to have this document incorporated in Hansard . The purpose of drawing this to the attention of the Senate is to say this: the business was for sale shortly before the minister publicly announced the successful tenders; it was certainly for sale at a time after this particular company became aware that it was a successful tenderer in the government's employment services contracting process.

We rang Mr Rudy Weber, who is the signatory to the letter from Lloyds Business Brokers, who advised that they had been contacted around Christmas time with a view to marketing this company on a selective marketing basis; that is, they would seek particular companies to buy it. I am concerned, firstly, because Senator Ellison says:

A member of the family who contacted the department today has said that approaches were made to the company for the sale of it . . .

That is clearly not the case according to Mr Weber. He is saying that they received instructions from the company. And, secondly, he said:

.. that there was no aspect of it being sold.

Clearly, every aspect of it was available for sale on 16 February, and probably later than that.

Further information as to when the business ceased to be for sale, if indeed that is the case, is in the Australian Financial Review on Tuesday, 10 March on page 9 in an article by Michelle Grattan entitled, `Job contracts attract more fire'. The article reports a Mr John Leach as saying that the business was no longer for sale. He also refers to the documents that I have referred to. In an article in the Sydney Morning Herald of the same date by Tony Wright there is a quote in the third column which I will read:

Mr John Leach, a partner of the company that had offered Allhands for sale last month, Lloyds Business Brokers, told the Herald yesterday that Allhands had been withdrawn from sale, but would not comment on the suggestion that this had occurred during the past two days.

I will accept from Mr Leach that the company was withdrawn from sale. Whether it was withdrawn from sale on the day I asked the question in the Senate is not clear. It was clearly up for sale shortly before all material times and I think most likely up to the time we asked questions in the Senate.

In relation to the second document, it is clear that this document was forwarded to a prospective buyer of the company on 16 February 1998. That document reveals that Allhands Hire Pty Ltd was a successful tenderer in the process. It was going to get a contract of some substance. Notwithstanding what Mr leach might have said to the media, it is beyond belief that successfully obtaining a $1 million contract from the Commonwealth, someone who is very likely to meet their commitments and pay the bill if you perform the contract, does not add value to the company. That is absolutely beyond belief.

We are suggesting, and indeed I was suggesting in the question, that there is a coincidence between the awarding of the contract to this company and the sale of the company and that that is a matter for concern. I also talked about the financial situation of the company and it is clear from the material which was distributed that at the time the tenders closed this company had problems with part of its operation and was not achieving its business plan. That is contained in other documentation that is in circulation. But in fairness to the company I do not think that that should be put on the public record at this stage. But I reserve my right to include that matter in further debate if this matter is to go further.

I in no way apologise, as was suggested by Minister Ellison, or withdraw any of the aspects of my question or remarks I have made on this matter. I suggest, indeed, that the minister ought to look carefully at this matter and come back into the Senate and make it clear that his comments about the company not being for sale might have related to the particular time he made his statement. But it is not clear that, immediately prior to question time on Monday, this company was not for sale.

The PRESIDENT —Is leave granted to incorporate the document in Hansard ?

Senator Ian Campbell —I do not want to give leave and I would like to explain why. We would refuse the first document, notwithstanding Senator O'Brien's comments, because it is not addressed to anyone. It is just a piece of paper. It is not really a document that means anything that we could allow. The second document is quite clearly from the Commonwealth and marked `commercial in confidence'. For that reason we certainly would not allow that to be incorporated. The matters you raised will be referred to the minister and he may have other views in due course and may countermand my refusal. But at this stage I could not let either of those be tabled.

Leave not granted.