Senator PATTERSON —I give notice that, on the next day of sitting, I shall move:

  That the following matter be referred to the Standing Committee on Community Affairs for inquiry and report by 30 June 1994:

  All matters pertaining to the marketing of the Disability Reform Package (DRP) and in particular:

    (a)the circumstances surrounding the letting of the contracts to market the DRP;

    (b)the management of the contracts to market the DRP by the Management Committee and its sub-committees;

    (c)the nature and the extent of debts owed to creditors that relate directly or indirectly to contracts to market the DRP;

    (d)the extent to which the Commonwealth may have been mischarged by companies contracted to market the DRP;

    (e)the reasons why advice from two of three departments on the Management Committee to terminate a contract to market the DRP was not heeded;

    (f)the circumstances surrounding the letting of a further contract in April 1993 to a company that was contracted to market the DRP, although it must have been suspected that the company was in financial difficulty;

    (g)the doubts expressed during Senate Estimates about the objectivity of the liquidator appointed to a company that was contracted to market the DRP;

    (h)the extent to which the strategy that was adopted to market the DRP effectively met its objectives; and

    (i)the adequacy of current guidelines and practices for the letting and the management of contracts in the circumstances of the marketing of the DRP.