Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

There will be a Senate committee and a Senate inquiry. I believe that the Attorney-General should have, on the Monday, corrected the record. I know that is not a view the Attorney-General shares, but I believe the first available opportunity would have been on that Monday. If, after that point, the Attorney-General wanted to conduct further inquiries, that would have been a matter for the Attorney-General, but I think it should have been corrected as soon as possible. I think it is alarming that that is a view that also appears to be shared in the email correspondence that has recently been released. That also seems to be the view of Michael Thawley, the head of the Prime Minister's department. The correspondence here from the deputy secretary can only be read in one way, and that is that the Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet came out and made clear what his views were. (Time expired)