David Norris (Independent)

An extremely interesting question was asked by Senator Buttimer about poverty-proofing by the social inclusion unit. This concerned me. I know it worried many of the people involved in the Combat Poverty Agency. It does not attract the greatest credibility when the Department making the cuts also assesses the impact on poverty. The fact the social inclusion unit is part of the Department of Social and Family Affairs does not make people inclined to treat it with the respect with which it might be treated if it was part of a fully independent group.

One of the great moral disasters of this current economic difficulty is that the Government disabled so many of those groups that would have spoken out. The credibility of this proofing is reduced by the fact that it is an in-house job. There is a clear and classic conflict of interest. Although it would need to be done at an international level, it is insane that we allow groups like Standard & Poor's and Fitch to continue to operate because these groups were complicit in such conflicts of interest. We have been landed in a financial mess because people were essentially allowed to rate themselves. It really does not stack up. There may very well be independent minded and forensic people in the Department who are doing this, but I do not think people would be inclined to believe them, because they are essentially carrying out an in-house audit. I have always been against that. Whether it is newspapers or lawyers regulating themselves, these things do not attract public support.