Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Madam Acting Deputy President, on the point of order: I think Senator Hutchins is well within his rights. It is clear that he has been implicated in the cancellation of a military mission because of what Mr Slipper has alleged in the parliament today. I think Senator Hutchins is entitled to put his case on how the representations that Mr Slipper has engaged in in the other chamber have reflected in a very serious way on Senator Hutchins’s own conduct. I think he is entitled to clear the air on that. I appreciate some of the points you and Senator Bernardi have made about how perhaps we can speed the journey of this, but I do think Senator Hutchins is entitled to correct the impressions that Mr Slipper has left that impugn Senator Hutchins’s behaviour on board the ship.