Chris Ellison (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law, Senator Sherry. Does he remember saying yesterday in the Senate:

What I have said on many occasions is that the government would not legislate to control short selling.

I refer the minister also to the first line of his press release, issued yesterday, which said:

Senator Nick Sherry, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law, has today released the Government’s draft legislation to require the disclosure of covered short sale transactions on Australian financial markets.

In view of the conflicting statements, I ask the minister: did he mislead the Senate with his answer yesterday or did he simply not know that he was about to release draft legislation doing the exact opposite of what he had said in the Senate?