Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for that. That does go to some of those matters that I spoke about earlier. These sorts of matters sometimes continue to be sorted out, whereas issues related to recommendations, although we see them as minor in some respects, have a clear answer. There is nothing stopping or preventing A-G’s from filing a post report or a post explanation if they have missed something, or even following that up in their advice to the committee so that it can be passed to members. I encourage A-G’s always to take that opportunity. If there are matters or omissions that they may want to add to their submission, they can always make a supplementary submission. It would, I suspect, always then be dealt with in the report to the legislation committee by the minister. But, as the parliament will know, it is not always the case that the government provides a report on the Senate committee recommendations. It is helpful for that to be done, but the government reserves its right to not always do that and to use the legislative process itself to provide a response. It does, of course, provide responses to the broader reports but not necessarily always in respect of legislative reports.

Question negatived.