Dan Boyle (Green Party)

Other matters, such as cronyism and crony capitalism, have also been raised. Senator Ross was slightly mischievous when he spoke about my original public appointments Bill and the public appointments Bill he introduced in this House. I agree that this area needs major reform. Cronyism exists outside the area of public appointments and will continue to exist regardless of the method of public appointments used in this country. I accept that questions need to be answered. There will be a debate on the matter in the other House. The responses given to the questions asked will be examined carefully. We need to move away from the idea that any contact between political and business interests can only be considered in the most negative light. There is a lack of proper safeguards, legislation and codes of conduct. That is one of the reasons we hope to introduce legislation dealing with corporate donations before we leave Government. For all the reasons I have mentioned, my party is right to stay in government until certain events happen. We are being responsible by seeing through our programme of work.