Chris Ellison (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

As I said, the announcement will be predicated on the passage of this legislation, so the sooner this is done, the better. I do not want to pre-empt what the Senate may or may not do but Senator Nettle is asking me to give some idea. That is not unreasonable, and on that basis I will presume that this legislation will go through expeditiously. If this legislation is passed expeditiously, I would envisage an announcement on the final book within the next 10 days. The tests would then commence on 1 October, so that would give some time. And, of course, people do not have to make an application on 1 October. If they want to have more time to look at the book they can delay their application. That is how I see it, but I stress—lest I be misrepresented, and I am sure I would not be—that this is based on an expeditious passing of this bill. The answer to the other question is that everything that has come in on the website has been considered by the minister in relation to the formulation of the final draft of the booklet.