Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Can the parliamentary secretary simply explain: if you do not accept one of the recommendations, does that not mean that the government believe that the panel got it wrong? If you accept that the panel got it right, why would you wilfully not adopt their recommendation? Here we have the parliamentary secretary oozing all the arrogance that this government displays on a daily basis. You corner them and they can no longer explain their disgraceful behaviour, their disregard for the parliamentary process and their disregard for the review panel's recommendations. And what do they do? They just sit there and say, 'We don't have to answer that.'

I know that you are following the example of your Prime Minister when it comes to the Australian Workers Union scandal. She had one media conference that was going to explain it all and she would not say anything more because she had answered everything. Well, where was she yesterday? She was having to come back and try to explain but, once again, simply arrogantly obfuscating—and that is what we are witnessing in this chamber tonight by the parliamentary secretary, who is saying she does not have to answer a very simple question. The very simple question was: if you are not adopting the panel review recommendation, does it not therefore follow that you believe they got it wrong?