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

I too would like to reflect on the discussion of this matter of this direction, which ultimately the Senate will have an opportunity to address again once we hear the report of the committee. I would like to take this chance to remind senators that what we are dealing with here is a matter of form. This is the form of the Attorney-General. This is important because, if you listen to his answer today and indeed the comments of Senator Back and the interjections from Senator Macdonald in question time, Senator Brandis would have us believe that this is just a small difference of interpretation over section 17. When he is challenged on this point he takes his next usual step, which is to blame the department. We have been down this path before. We went down this path with Man Monis and we have gone down it several other times.