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- Title
MINISTERIAL STATEMENTS
Australian Advanced Air Traffic System
- Database
Senate Hansard
- Date
16-12-1992
- Source
Senate
- Parl No.
36
- Electorate
VIC
- Interjector
Senator Collins
- Page
5203
- Party
LP
- Presenter
- Status
- Question No.
- Questioner
- Responder
- Speaker
Senator LEWIS
- Stage
- Type
- Context
Ministerial Statement
- System Id
chamber/hansards/1992-12-16/0113
Note: Where available, the PDF/Word icon below is provided to view the complete and fully formatted document
Table Of Contents

Previous Fragment Next Fragment
-
Hansard
- Start of Business
-
PETITIONS
- Australian Research Fellowship
- Constitutional Monarchy
- Bender's Quarry
- ABC: Asia
- Oath/Affirmation of Allegiance
- Trade Practices Act
- Regulation of Video Material Bill 1992
- Veterans' Entitlement Amendment Bill 1992
- Procedural Text
-
NOTICES OF MOTION
-
Hours of Meeting and Routine of Business
- Withdrawal
- Australian Broadcasting Corporation Amendment Bill 1992
- Crimes (Search Warrants and Powers of Arrest) Amendment Bill 1992
- Telecommunications (Interception) Amendment Bill 1992
- Administrative Appeals Tribunal Amendment Bill 1992
- Railways Strike
- Legal Aid
- Burma
- Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology
- Legal Aid
- Standing Committee on Environment, Recreation and the Arts
- Unemployment: Graduates
- Iraq
- Standing Committee on Environment, Recreation and the Arts
- Tully-Millstream Hydro-electric Scheme
-
General Business
- Withdrawal
-
Hours of Meeting and Routine of Business
- ORDER OF BUSINESS
-
COMMITTEES
- Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration
- TABLING OF DOCUMENTS
- REGISTERED PUBLICATIONS SERVICE
-
COMMITTEES
- Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs
- Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade
-
Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training
- Report
- Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology
-
TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL (No. 3) 1992
-
In Committee
- Senator COLLINS
- Senator PARER
- Senator COLLINS
- Senator PARER
- Senator BOURNE
- Senator COLLINS
- Senator COLLINS
- Senator ALSTON
- Senator ALSTON
- Senator COLLINS
- Senator BOURNE
- Senator HARRADINE
- Senator COLLINS
- Senator WALTERS
- Senator COLLINS
- Senator WALTERS
- Senator COLLINS
- Senator HARRADINE, Senator WALTERS
- Senator COLLINS
- Senator WALTERS
- Senator COLLINS
-
In Committee
- ORDER OF BUSINESS
- HEALTH AND COMMUNITY SERVICES LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL (No. 3) 1992 HOUSING ASSISTANCE AMENDMENT BILL 1992
-
AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL TRAINING AUTHORITY BILL 1992
- In Committee
- Third Reading
- ORDER OF BUSINESS
- IMPORTED FOOD CONTROL BILL 1992
-
QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
-
Economy
(Senator SHORT, Senator BUTTON) -
Manufacturing
(Senator DEVEREUX, Senator BUTTON) -
Victoria: Borrowings
(Senator ALSTON, Senator BUTTON) -
Industrial Relations
(Senator FOREMAN, Senator COOK) -
Nuclear Reactors
(Senator SOWADA, Senator BUTTON) -
Mobile Telecommunications Services
(Senator SCHACHT, Senator COLLINS) -
Prime Minister: Companies
(Senator MICHAEL BAUME, Senator TATE) -
Textiles, Clothing and Footwear Industries
(Senator LOOSLEY, Senator BUTTON) -
Ambassador to the OECD
(Senator BISHOP, Senator GARETH EVANS) -
Telecom Australia
(Senator SPINDLER, Senator COLLINS) -
Pigs
(Senator O'CHEE, Senator GARETH EVANS) -
Hospitals: Veterans
(Senator WEST, Senator TATE)
-
Economy
- DISTINGUISHED VISITORS
- QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
-
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
- Film Industry
- Ambassador to the OECD
- Independent Contractors
- Prime Minister: Companies
-
MINISTERIAL STATEMENTS
- Australian Advanced Air Traffic System
-
COMMITTEES
-
Standing Committee on Environment, Recreation and the Arts
- Report
-
Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade
- Report: Government Response
- Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs
-
Standing Committee on Environment, Recreation and the Arts
- ORDER OF BUSINESS
-
DOCUMENTS Department of the Parliamentary Reporting Staff Department of the Parliamentary Library
- Auditor-General's Reports
-
COMMITTEES
-
Scrutiny of Bills
- Report
- Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade
-
Public Works
- Reports
-
Scrutiny of Bills
- JOINT HOUSE DEPARTMENT: PUBLIC LIABILITY CLAIM
- ORDER OF BUSINESS
-
COMMITTEES
-
Public Works
- Reports
-
Standing Committee on Regulations and Ordinances
- Scrutiny of Regulations
-
Public Works
- TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL (No. 3) 1992
- DATA-MATCHING PROGRAM (ASSISTANCE AND TAX) AMENDMENT BILL 1992 VETERANS' AFFAIRS LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL (No. 2) 1992 VETERANS' ENTITLEMENTS AMENDMENT BILL 1992 SOCIAL SECURITY LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL (No. 2) 1992 SOCIAL SECURITY LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL (No. 3) 1992
- ADJOURNMENT
- DATA-MATCHING PROGRAM (ASSISTANCE AND TAX) AMENDMENT BILL 1992 VETERANS' AFFAIRS LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL (No. 2) 1992 VETERANS' ENTITLEMENTS AMENDMENT BILL 1992 SOCIAL SECURITY LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL (No. 2) 1992 SOCIAL SECURITY LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL (No. 3) 1992
-
ADJOURNMENT
- Primary Production
- DOCUMENTS
-
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
-
Taxation: Imputation Credit Scheme
(Senator Maguire, Senator Button) -
Taxation: Dividend Imputation Credits
(Senator Watson, Senator Button) -
Currency and Coinage
(Senator Watson, Senator Button) -
Treasury: Staff
(Senator Archer, Senator Button) -
Aboriginal Medical Service
(Senator Campbell, Senator Collins) -
Information Technology
(Senator Parer, Senator Button) -
Wet Tropics Management Authority: Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
(Senator O'Chee, Senator Collins) -
Superannuation
(Senator Watson, Senator Button) -
Immigration: Return of Chinese Citizens
(Senator O'Chee, Senator Tate) -
ACT AIDS Action Council
(Senator Reid, Senator Button) -
Navy: Vessel Repairs
(Senator O'Chee, Senator Robert Ray)
-
Taxation: Imputation Credit Scheme
Content Window
Wednesday, 16 December 1992
Page: 5203
Page: 5203
Senator LEWIS (5.11 p.m.)
—I have given my Whip an undertaking that I will only be a couple of minutes, and I shall be only a couple of minutes. There are just a few things I want to say. Firstly, I have repeatedly raised in this Parliament the question of government business enterprises and the contracting arrangements that they enter into. Over a period of many years, certain safety precautions have been put into place when governments enter into contracts in order to make sure that things such as Senator Schacht suggested—that people would say that Ministers were rorting the system—would not happen. When this Government went down the government business enterprise path—not a genuine privatisation—it forgot about those safety precautions. I have warned the Government repeatedly; I still warn it, and I am glad to hear that Senator Schacht says it is a matter which the Government must address. The Government certainly must address it, and privatisation is a matter which our Ministers will have to address as we go down the path of privatisation.
Secondly, I pose the question: is the Civil Aviation Authority the sort of body that ought to be privatised anyway? It was privatised for one reason, and that was that the Government needed to fix up the salary structure. It could not do that under government arrangements because of the salaries that are paid at government level, so it privatised the authority, fixed up the salary level and was able to employ a chairman at some fabulous salary. He adopted a business approach to this and said, `Let's cut through all the red tape and let's forget about governments and responsibility to the people of Australia and all the rest of it'.
If the Minister goes to the Melbourne airport he should walk around the car park and look at the car parking places that the Civil Aviation Authority people have given themselves. They have taken over the prime car parking positions at the Melbourne airport so that they can park their cars close to the terminal. Members of the public have to park a long way away and walk a longer distance.
Senator Collins
—CAA or FAC?
Senator LEWIS
—I apologise. Senator Collins is quite right, the FAC. That is a typical example of the mind-set, `Because we are running the show, we are entitled to high priority'. Again, I ask Senator Collins: was the Civil Aviation Authority a body that ought to have been privatised? Is that the sort of body that ought to be set into a government business enterprise?
Thirdly, I want to mention the abuse by Senator Collins. He ought to be ashamed of himself. He ought to publicly apologise to Senator MacGibbon for what he kept saying to him. I remember that on one occasion I stood up and said, `This smells'. I have a good lawyer's nose and I said, `I don't know a great deal about this, but this smells'. I do not care for any of these parties, I do not represent any of these parties, yet Senator Collins interjected by saying something which implied that in some way or other I was acting as a lobbyist for one of the tenderers, which was quite outrageous at the time. There was nothing I could do about it, except make some personal explanation in the Senate, but it is too late when we get that sort of rough interjection. I say to Senator Collins that there are a number of people in this place that he ought to apologise to, in particular, starting with Senator MacGibbon. I think that Senator Macdonald might be right; the Minister's behaviour in this area is such as to warrant serious consideration as to his entitlement to remain on the front bench.
Finally, I did not know a great deal about this until I started to listen to the questions Senator MacGibbon was asking. I sought information—which Senator Collins could have obtained too—and the moment I started to talk to people about the information, it became clear to me that it was shonky. I raised it in Parliament and got rubbished.
There is another matter going on at the present moment which is shonky. I have raised it in Parliament, and again I have been rubbished. The media will not take any interest in it. Let me tell the Parliament that in the same way that there is something wrong with this particular contract with the CAA, there is something wrong with the accounts of the Brown and Hatton Group and the interests of the Prime Minister (Mr Keating) and the former Minister, Mr John Brown, in it. The Government needs to address it urgently, otherwise there will be an inquiry which will ultimately disclose something about which all Government members will be ashamed.
Debate (on motion by Senator Reid) adjourned.