Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—As the former government, we do understand that on occasion it is unavoidable to have senior ministers absent from parliament, and it was always our view that it is not good practice to have senior ministers absent unless absolutely necessary. So I do want to record our disappointment that we have today an announcement that two senior ministers will be absent from this Senate for not one or two days but the full week. I accept Senator Evans’s apology for the fact that we only got the notice this morning. The notice itself does not give any indication of what the ministers are doing except to say that they are overseas. So I thank Senator Evans for at least informing us now of their activities overseas. But I do record, given this absence, that it is surprising that Senator Kim Carr is not present to answer questions about the government’s $35 million handout to Toyota. We are even more surprised that Senator Conroy, who has responsibility for Treasury matters in this place, is not here to handle his responsibility for Treasury bills in this Senate during this week. So we express our disappointment and hope that this is not indicative of how the government intends to treat the Senate for the next 2½ years.