Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question. I understand that she is deeply committed to its pursuit and this area, and is doing so in a detailed way. I've been very up-front with the member with respect to the fact that, as a matter of process, we in the government were not inclined to commence and conduct a detailed and extensive national consultation process while most of Australia and, more recently, a large and critical state were still struggling to contain the COVID-19 virus. That sort of consultation around draft legislation is going to be critical, as I think the member appreciates, because of the incredible importance, whatever view you might take, of issues such as retrospectivity, which is probably one of the more difficult issues that any parliament will ever have to resolve with respect to standards such as criminal standards or indeed declarations of corruption.

Mr Giles interjecting—

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