David Feeney (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I guess the short answer is yes. But your question in some ways is 'How long is a piece of string?' The point and, I guess, the reality is that the department and I understand—and I am about to make commitments on behalf of my colleagues and I am sure they will take an interest in what I am signing them up for—that in this particular policy space the relationship, in my view, between the department, the minister and the ESOs is an organic and continuing one. The simple fact of it is that if schedule 2 does create anything like the concerns you are describing then, yes, the minister and the department would respond. I do not know whether that would require a new consultative structure. I wonder if those that exist might be up to the task of managing such a conversation, but certainly the government would continue to have a responsive approach to its stakeholders.