George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Xenophon, I do not concede and I do not acknowledge, I actually embrace what you say. Your point is right but it is also a little unnecessary, because of course what these amendments seek to achieve is the process that is envisaged anyway. If you look at the stipulations in proposed sections 180K and 180R you will see that they already require the minister to have regard to submissions made by the Public Interest Advocate in relation to the public interest, so it is necessarily implicit in the bill that the Public Interest Advocate will be given the opportunity to make those submissions. That is what we had envisaged. Perhaps if we had consulted you earlier on, Senator Xenophon, we might have expressed this a little more elegantly. Can I direct you to proposed section 180X(3), which provides that the regulations may prescribe matters relating to the performance of the role of the Public Interest Advocate. Those regulations will be promulgated. I can tell you—and I am not just saying this, by the way, because of what you have said; it is something that we already had in mind to do—those regulations will include a specific stipulation to put beyond doubt the issue that you have raised.