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

I assure Senator Bernardi that if he wants to grab hold of what was possibly the single largest lemon of a policy implemented by the previous government, he is welcome to it. This is a policy which saw mass mail-outs, advertising on television and millions of dollars of wasted taxpayers’ money that led to an extraordinarily small usage—I am happy to get him the exact figure; possibly two per cent are still using it after all of the blather from those opposite. This was a monumental failure of a policy. But let me be clear: for those who are currently using it, the support mechanisms are in place and go on. We will be taking no new applications. That is an accurate description of what is actually happening. (Time expired)