Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked today.

In moving this motion I would like to highlight my anticipation of the Attorney-General providing the full costs associated with the engagement of Commissioner Heydon. Whilst we know overall—at least from the information available to date—that the costs have been exorbitant, we still do not have the full picture.

Indeed, today Senator Brandis could not even tell us if he had provided a personal sign-off for higher-than-standard rates with respect to Mr Stoljar. How he could not remember that he had signed off on such a thing is beyond me, but it fits into the overall context here of the political witch-hunt that has been involved with this royal commission.

There are two factors which we should be looking at in relation to the royal commission. Firstly, this cost issue and secondly, also, the issue of impartiality. This is where, despite what might be put to Commissioner Heydon by 4 o'clock today from the parties and others, I would raise three issues. These are three pretty critical issues. They are the three issues that relate to 'three strikes and you are out'.

Let's go back to the first strike. The first strike I observed at the time—and which Laura Tingle raised in one of her columns—was the intervention by Justice Heydon in which he suggested that the opposition leader 'might' be seen as an evasive witness. How inappropriate that conduct was! He managed to skip through on that, maybe simply because it was his first indiscretion. But let's look at the other indiscretions.

The second one is—and I tire of this discussion as to whether an event was a fundraiser or not; frankly that is not the point. The point is: it was a Liberal Party function, regardless of whether any funds were made—although donations were sought—Tony Nutt, it was a Liberal Party function. The commissioner should have had the good sense at the outset to avoid that type of partiality, but he did not—until the media started asking questions—