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

I am not sure how that is a supplementary to the primary question. Nevertheless—

Senator Wong interjecting—

I suppose if we define it broadly; I thought it was about the pension, Senator Wong. Nevertheless, no, I do not, Senator Brown. I have a very high regard for Mr Tony Shepherd. The Commission of Audit process was made necessary, by the way, so that the government could identify savings from the fiscal train wreck it inherited from our predecessors, and in particular from Australia's worst ever finance minister. Mr Shepherd was tasked with a very difficult job to go through the expenditure of the government to try to find economies. There are many, many considerations that Mr Shepherd took into account. He made many, many recommendations. Some of them the government accepted; some of the recommendations the government did not accept. That is one recommendation that the government has specifically ruled out.