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

Just to help Senator Macdonald, the state RTAs are the relevant bodies to deal with that. There seems to be a little bit of confusion that the 2c is directly linked to the road stops or the harmonisation. This is not the case. They are not directly linked. The government has made the commitment that it will build these road stops in an ongoing manner. They are not tied together in the way that Senator Macdonald is trying to tie them together. As I have already mentioned, the funding for these comes from AusLink.

For Senator Xenophon, a disallowable instrument is a legal instrument until it is disallowed. I have done this myself. I disallowed an accounting standard, as funny as you may find that. In the 14-odd days that it took to disallow it, one company in particular, who was a major beneficiary of the change in the accounting standard, was able to conduct its business. This actually then went to court and the judge ruled that a disallowable instrument stands until it is disallowed by the Senate. So it has full force of law until it is disallowed.