Ministerial and Departmental Meetings with Hawker Britton

Senator Cormann asked the Minister for Defence, upon notice, on 8 February 2010:

1. On how many occasions has the current and/or former Minister and associated parliamentary secretaries in the current parliament, and any departmental officials:
1. met directly with representatives of Hawker Britton; and/or
2. attended meetings that were also attended by representatives of Hawker Britton.
2. For each abovementioned meeting:
1. what was the date;
2. what was the topic of discussion; and
3. which Hawker Britton representatives were present.

Senator Faulkner – The answer to the honourable senator’s question is as follows:

With regard to Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries

1. I cannot comment on the meetings of the former Minister for Defence and associated former Parliamentary Secretaries. I can comment only on my time as Minister for Defence.

(1)(a) None.

    (b) One       

(2)(a) 1 June 2010

    (b) Party meeting. No Defence portfolio matters were discussed.

    (c) Bruce Hawker

With regard to Minister Combet in his former capacity as Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science, and in his current capacity as Minister for Defence Materiel and Science:

(1)(a)(b) None.

(2)(a)(b)(c)  Please refer to (1)(a)(b)
 
With regard to Minister Griffin, in his capacity as Minister for Defence Personnel:

(1)(a)(b) None.

(2)(a)(b)(c)  Please refer to (1)(a)(b)

With regard to Parliamentary Secretary Kelly, in his capacity as Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Support:

(1)(a) None

(b) 2

(2)(a) Both 17 March 2010

(b) Due to Commercial in Confidence, it is not appropriate to disclose this information.

(c)  Due to privacy considerations this information will not be disclosed.

With regard to the Department of Defence

(1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(b)(c)    
Responding to this question would require Departmental officials to review calendar and diary entries since December 2007 for meetings that may have involved or been attended by Hawker Britton. This would require the manual examination of a large number of diary and meeting records, which is an unreasonable diversion of government resources.

close