Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Exactly. So we have spent the last three hours trying to ascertain what the views were of the ex-service organisations who have been involved in this process. Why was this not done beforehand? I am not suggesting for one minute that what has been given to Mr Bain, what you have read out, is not correct. But I want to consult with the RSL and the Vietnam Veterans Federation over question time and taking note and whatever time is there, and indeed if their position is that they are happy to let this go through then it will go through. But why was not this done at 10 past 10 this morning? Why have we gone through this charade trying to ascertain the views of these ex-service organisations, the charade of not knowing whether people had or had not been given documents, the charade about whether people had or had not been consulted. Three hours we have spent on this when we should have at an early stage had the sort of advice we are now starting to get through a drip feed.

I want to take up the parliamentary secretary's comment in relation to the policy guidance. I take it from what you have said that the Repatriation Commission has the view that they already have appropriate policy guidance in place to meet the requirements of the recently added but not distributed addendum to the EM.