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

Thank you for helping to clear up some of Senator Abetz’s misconceptions, Senator Xenophon. I always admire Senator Abetz’s capacity to almost always maintain a straight face while he is putting forth. It is an admiral capacity. A lot of people think that listening to him is like listening to chalk on a board but I quite enjoy the theatre. The figure was arrived at based on a number of assumptions regarding CPI, CPIMV, growth in sales by model, broadly, and economic growth, and it was in line with the budget forecasts. So it was not, as you are trying to suggest, a figure plucked out of the air; there was a basis for it.