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

I will tell you why, Senator Carr, if you would have the manners to listen. For some of the six days to which Senator Wong has referred, Senator Fierravanti-Wells was suffering a serious injury. She had a very serious fracture of her arm, and that was the reason she was away on most of those six days. Honourable opposition senators ought also to be aware that Senator Fierravanti-Wells, as the Minister for International Development and the Pacific, has more responsibilities to travel overseas than most ministers do and in fact today is at a meeting of the Asian Development Bank in Frankfurt.