Alan Eggleston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I do apologise, Mr Deputy President. Senator Conroy, we all know, is a great Australian. I am sure he loves Australian Rules and I think he supports Geelong. It may be that his grand plan is to broadcast AFL not only to the Pacific and Asia but also to North Africa and the Middle East.

I suspect that is not really what it is all about at all. It would be interesting and very Australian if it were. I suspect it is really all about internal divisions within the government. This whole thing is symbolic of certain dissensions within the government and certain tensions. Julie Bishop, the opposition foreign affairs spokesman, said on a radio program that those sorts of issues might be more important in providing answers to what this is really all about. Ms Bishop called for an Auditor-General's report on this whole process, and I think that would be very interesting to see.

As I said at the beginning, it is very curious that somebody like Senator Feeney should be the person to convey to the Australian parliament the fact that the Australian government has decided to broaden the requirements for the tender for the Australia Network television service. I can only say that, if a junior is the person who conveys such an important message, I just wonder what is really going on in the ranks of the government.