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November 4, 2024
James Paterson has grilled the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs Stephanie Foster over her priorities after noticing the Australian, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags were removed from executive headshots on the website.
The Liberal Senator told Senate Estimates on Monday it was noticed in July and August that the flags, which were in the background of the photos of officials, had been removed.
Ms Foster said she asked her staff to redo the photos without flags in the background as she thought they should be "less formal".
Mr Paterson noted the only change to the headshots was the removal of the flags and questioned how taking them out achieved the secretary's goal.
He also asked what the purpose was of having informal headshots on the website, to which Ms Foster responded that it was part of a “cultural reform”.
“I think having photographs against a background of flags gives a certain formality to the photo,” she said.
“As you know, as part of our cultural reform, I’ve been working hard to make sure that the senior executive are very accessible to staff. It was one small change that I thought might assist with that program.”
Mr Paterson further pressed on the matter, suggesting the department officials were “uncomfortable” appearing in front of the national flag, but Ms Foster denied this, saying they were “not at all uncomfortable”.
Mr Paterson went on to question if she had wondered how much time her staff had spent photoshopping them, with Ms Foster replying, “no, Senator”.
He further pressed: “In July and August, the department was dealing with some pretty big issues and continues to deal with some big issues, whether it’s the released cohort of non-citizen offenders, or whether it was Palestinian visas or folks getting through to the Australian mainland.
“Was this really a high priority for the department at a time like that?"
Ms Foster insisted it had not taken up much time nor focus, saying, “whilst I’ll have to take on notice how big the technical job was, I’m struggling to believe it was much work”.
Mr Paterson replied the decision showed an “interesting demonstration of priorities” at a critical time for the department when it was “failing to refer AAT (Administrative Appeals Tribunal) to the minister”.
“This is really the priority of the Department of Home Affairs at a time like this?” he asked.
Ms Foster defended herself, saying it was a “very small issue” which took “very little of my time and effort”.
“I have no concerns about my capacity to focus on the big issues facing the department and do that,” she said.
Mr Paterson brought up the issue of resources in the department already being constrained, clarifying, “there’s nothing better (Ms Foster’s staff) could be doing with their time rather than photoshopping flags out of headshots?”
Ms Foster fired back as she argued the staff responsible would not have been able to assist with the AAT referrals.
She added, “as you note we have surged a considerable number of resources and we’re looking forward to talking to you about our progress on that issue”.
