Finance Minister Katy Gallagher accused Liberal senator Jane Hume of an 'extraordinary attack on public officials’ during Senate estimates.
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00:00I note that Mr. White, who is the new head of fiscal here, that he worked as an advisor
00:09in the personal offices of Wayne Swan and Chris Bowen as Treasurer.
00:14And I note that Ms. Brown supervised that work.
00:18And she also worked on the personal staff of Stephen Conroy as his Opposition Chief
00:22of Staff.
00:23This is an extraordinary attack on Treasury officials.
00:25There would be many Treasury officials...
00:27It's awful what you've done to them.
00:29So Dr. Kennedy...
00:30There would be many Treasury officials, excuse me, there would be many Treasury officials
00:34who have worked in a seconded way to governments of all different types over the last 30 years,
00:44I would expect.
00:45And to be fair, Treasury and the Public Service has a proud record of being apolitical.
00:54People turn up to work and are professional.
00:58And what you are doing here, Senator Hulme, is disgusting and outrageous.
01:05And Senator Hulme...
01:06I just have two more questions.
01:08Senator Hulme, you know, the standing orders give us guidance about impugning the motives
01:15of public...
01:16I didn't impugn anybody.
01:17Oh, absolutely.
01:18Of public service.
01:19Oh, absolutely you did.
01:20And...
01:21If you're going to do it, own it, for goodness sake.
01:22Yeah.
01:23Well, I am...
01:24You're going to be that bad.
01:26I am concerned, Senator Hulme, about the line of questioning that you are adopting for one
01:37of the most well-respected on all sides of politics, public servants in this country.
01:46So Senator Hulme, I haven't finished...
01:48I haven't finished, Senator McGrath.
01:50So I am listening carefully to your line of questioning and do you want to do your
01:57point of order or shall I give Senator Hulme the call for the short amount of time she
02:00has left?
02:01Point of order.
02:02Chair, you...