Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked today.

I want to take note today particularly of the answers given by Senator Carr in response to my questions to him, which were following up of course from the questions asked by Senator Abetz yesterday. One of the most serious allegations that can be made against any member in the other place or senator in this chamber is that they have misled their colleagues. Any reasonable assessment of the answers given by Senator Carr yesterday and the answers given again by Senator Carr today shows that he is not prepared to accept that the answers he gave this chamber yesterday to a very simple question were indeed an attempt to mislead the parliament. The sin here is that Senator Carr could have quite easily addressed this matter by acknowledging that he was caught out by a bit of good work by the opposition—that we found out what he had not yet announced. He might have sort of fluffed around the edges, but he should have just acknowledged defeat.