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

Mr Gleeson wrote to me on 12 November last year and identified in a letter, which you have seen, a particular problem. I invited him to come to my office so that we could discuss that problem. That meeting happened on 30 November last year and we had a long discussion about that problem. At the end of that meeting I invited him to put his thoughts in writing to me, which he did 14 weeks later. I considered what he had said to me at the meeting, I considered what he had reduced to writing in his letter to me of March 2016, I sought advice from my department and I made some decisions. Mr Gleeson and I have a difference as to whether or not that process constitutes a consultation within the meaning of section 17 of the Legislation Act. Those are the metes and bounds of this difference.