Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I seek the indulgence of the chair to add to an answer.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister may proceed.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was not the member for Gippsland seeking a briefing from my office yesterday but another of his National Party colleagues, who was constructively engaging with the office. I have subsequently offered to the member a departmental briefing, which I understand he has accepted. In addition, I have looked into his concerns about responses to correspondence which were raised in the House yesterday. I can assure him that I am responding to the now 43 letters he has sent to me about EC matters—the first of which arrived on 20 August—including the 13 which were received yesterday, six of them after question time.