Thursday, 4 December 2025

 Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (12:03): (1174) Treasurer, whenever you have been questioned here on the Silver review, on its recommendations, on staffing, on contract awards, you have been quite clear. You have said it is ‘an independent review, a review that is at arm’s length from the government’. Given this much-vaunted independence, how many times did you meet with Helen Silver between commissioning the report and her delivery of it?

 Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Treasurer, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Regional Development) (12:04): Thank you, Mrs McArthur, for your question. At the outset, I am concerned by the implication – that you are suggesting that meeting with someone that I commissioned to do an independent report in some way undermines the independence of that report. You have asked how many times I met with Ms Silver in between commissioning the report and receiving the report, or indeed after the report. I disclose my meetings in the usual way and in the diary disclosure. I think in the last disclosure you would have seen that I have met with Ms Silver. I am not sure the amount of times – several times. It was really important in her work that she had the opportunity to update me on where she was headed. It was really important for me to make sure that there were no barriers to the information that flowed to her in relation to the report – that if she was going down a particular arm of inquiry that involved a particular portfolio, there was an opportunity for her to meet with individual ministers. You will see in their disclosures that she met with not every minister but a couple of ministers in relation to exploring some of the topics that she was interested in. This is an appropriate way to conduct a review of the public sector, because she is an independent person; she has been out of the public sector for some time. In applying her expertise, her knowledge and her historical understanding of the public sector to enable the report to be the best it could be, meaningful and with recommendations that are able to be implemented, it was very important that she engaged firsthand with ministers, department secretaries and indeed those that run the public sector.

 Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (12:06): Treasurer, I can actually help you out in this matter, because you personally met with Ms Silver 11 times before she made her report – seven times in the first eight weeks of her work – and that is to say nothing of your staff. How can Victorians have confidence that this was an independent review and that you were not there to influence her?

 Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Treasurer, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Regional Development) (12:06): Mr Davis went close to attacking her credibility but did not quite go there, to his respect. I know you have a high regard –

Members interjecting.

Harriet Shing: Because she worked for a coalition government.

Jaclyn SYMES: She did. Mrs McArthur, the fact that you are disparaging of a highly qualified, appropriate person – you are effectively arguing –

Bev McArthur interjected.

Jaclyn SYMES: I have just explained the appropriateness of having meetings with someone that I have appointed to conduct a review. As evidence to counter your ridiculous claim that this is not an independent report, you will see from the response, which you probably have not had time to read, that the government has not accepted every recommendation that was made by the independent review. I would suggest that that is pretty much evidence of the fact that I did not author the report and I did not strongarm an independent person such as Helen Silver – and if you knew Helen Silver, you would know that is probably not possible. I like the work she did. We were not able to accept every recommendation. We have accepted recommendations that will produce $4 billion in savings for the Victorian people, which – (Time expired)