Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

and I referred to my answer just a moment ago. I will answer this very precisely. The state of Senator Cormann's mind and his knowledge is set out in his statement to the Senate, and I refer the honourable member to that. The fact that there was an issue relating to Senator Day's office was drawn to the attention of my chief of staff by Senator Ryan on 18 August, as set out in his statement. My chief of staff was asked by Senator Ryan, if Senator Day sought to raise the matter with him or my office, to refer them to him—to Senator Ryan. Senator Ryan passed on the substance of that conversation to me shortly thereafter, some days thereafter, and that was the beginning of my awareness that there was any issue about Senator Day's office. In terms of details about the matter, they were first drawn to my attention on 4 October in a meeting that Senator Ryan refers to in some detail in his statement.

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