Speakers: Dr Steven Kennedy, Hon Jane Hume

Transcript

Hon Jane Hume

>> Thank you, Chair. Thank you for appearing, Dr. Kennedy. Uh, and thank you very much for your opening statement. Um, on the 9th of September, the Senate passed a cross party resolution reaffirming its constitutional scrutiny powers and rejecting any attempts of the executive to diminish them. On the 13th of October, the Senate went further and directed you personally to appear today. Thank you for appearing. Uh, do you accept that answering questions before Parliament is part of the job and not an imposition on it? And I wonder whether you would be prepared to appear before future estimates hearings.

Dr Steven Kennedy

>> Um certainly when requested to appear on any matter uh senator I I agree that it is definitely part of the job and and I would um always comply with such a request. Uh the previous practice for people in my positions uh which I understand began in the late 19770s with Sir Jeffrey Yin was that the secretary of prime minister and cabinet usually does not attend estimates. There have been um examples when the person in my position has attended uh since I'm aware that um uh one of my predecessors Phil Gens's attended twice. Max Moore Wilton attended once and otherwise I'm not aware of se any other of my predecessors attending these meetings. So uh of course if you had a matter which you thought was serious and you required my attendance of course I would attend. Otherwise I would be inclined to follow the longstanding conventions that have been established. I think they've served the process well. But of course these they are matters for the Senate not matters for me to determine.