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

Thank you, Senator Minchin, for the question. The government will not be commenting on the detail of proposals or speculating on the outcomes of the request for proposals processed while the report is being considered. Let me be clear: those opposite have continued once again, as I indicated in the answer to the previous question, to play both sides of the street. On the one hand, Senator Minchin has wanted to claim that the process is a farce and the process has collapsed, yet, on the other, now he is demanding that we sign a contract apparently by March. We have indicated that that is our ambition. But to speculate further, as Senator Minchin has continued to do, would undermine negotiations that are commercial in nature and go to the heart of the probity and integrity of this process. Senator Minchin should know better, because when we received the report the evaluation had occurred at arm’s length. The government had not seen the contents of any proposal, nor had it received detailed briefings on any proposal from the panel of experts.