Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Attorney General (Senator Brandis) to a question without notice asked by Senator Pratt today relating to the extent of consultations surrounding the making of a direction concerning the Solicitor-General.

The Attorney-General is no white rabbit. All the king's horses and all the king's men cannot unscramble Senator Brandis's answer. The dissenting report that the coalition members of our committee put together and that Senator Brandis has referred to in his answer tries to justify why no consultation can somehow be defined as consultation. Indeed, this is how we end up in Humpty Dumpty land. The report of coalition senators says that the Attorney pointed out during his evidence that section 17 of the act establishes a rule-maker's obligation to consult when making an instrument such as the direction. This I well understand to be the case.