Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee, , 4:22:02 to 5:25:57
Inquiry into the expenditure on promotional items like water bottles and tote bags used for community outreach and regional engagement before a policy change.
Topics: Government spending, Procurement
Speakers: Louise Glanville, Chris Gatenby, Matthew Swainson, Unknown Speaker, Ellie Whiteaker, Speaker 40
Um, onto a seemingly favorite topic of mine is some promo on promotional merchandise. Um for the commission, there was an expenditure of uh just under eighty-nine thousand dollars on promotional merchandise last financial year, some water bottles, pens and tote bags. I'm disappointed you didn't go for the um the key ring torches as some other agencies have done. Um what was that additional what was to what was um everything included in that expenditure?
Thank you very much, Senator. Perhaps I can um answer that while uh Ms. Sham is looking up additional material, but essentially um uh merchandise was um purchased by the commission to uh attend to the informational and other needs of community outreach, targeted sector engagement, particularly in regional and remote communities, and also um it might be provided at selected events that we speak to. Um, this material um is important often for um uh assisting people to be understanding what the commission does, and it's used as part of that uh ability to accurately describe our role and for people to remember who we are. Um still get confused between the NDIA and the NGIS, since that's an important piece of that. Um, but I do note that um that the expenditure I think was incurred over two years from memory and um and that um we no longer um uh using um that that uh resource for um that sort of targeted engagement. We now have different and more contemporary ways of uh attending to those issues.
So the eighty-eight thousand figure was over two years of spending and just checking that. And then you're changing up how you're approaching this into the future.
It was in a previous financial year, uh, Senator. Uh, and we have since implemented a policy around um not purchasing merchandise.
Okay, thank you. How are we going for time, Chair?
Senator, I think um earlier you asked a question of breakdown by level for APS, um, and I said we would have a look at that. I'm we did submit that in a quan, it's quan uh two zero eight. Uh, for those figures. We can provide an update. That was for numbers to one April twenty twenty-six. So if you'd like an update, we can uh update that.
We could do that.
That information?
I appreciate that. Um there's also been some media coverage on the amount spent by the government on lawyers to fight ART cases. Um there's been a hundred and thirty percent increase in NDIS ART cases over the past two years, according to the annual report of the ART.
We're changing your changes.
Do you want to do you want to come back?
Yeah, that'd be great.
That's fine.
Thank you. We will suspend for sixty minutes for lunch and continue with outcome for at one fifteen. No, two fifteen. Back.