Derryn Hinch (Victoria, Derryn Hinch's Justice Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is very interesting to see Senator Macdonald there saying that all this debate this morning is a total waste of time and then spend 16 minutes going on about it. I can tell Senator Macdonald, through the chair, that I am not part of a Labor-led witch-hunt against the Attorney-General and I have no desire to ever be a lawyer—I never have had, even though I have spent a lot of time in courts.

Some senators and, more importantly, the Australian public may wonder why there have been so many hearings by the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee into all of this, because, as you well point out, Senator, this is about Bond and Bell and it happened 25 to 30 years ago. But there are two points I want to make here. We had Joe Hockey, the then Treasurer, making a deal with the Western Australian government to divert $300 million—which should have gone to the Australian taxpayer through the ATO, through the Commonwealth—back to the Western Australian government, which would deprive other small creditors. WA would get the $300 million and other creditors would not. Especially, the ATO, the Commonwealth, would not get it. They dudded the small creditors out in WA. They dudded the Commonwealth. That is one point.

The second point—and why it is important—is that I believe that this is what led to the directive by the Attorney-General, as a spin-off last year, to make himself the gatekeeper of all legal issues, so all ministers, all departments, had to go through him. On that occasion we had the then Solicitor-General, Mr Gleeson, eventually resigning. I mentioned earlier that forceful argument that they had about Mr Gleeson, the then Solicitor-General, being before the High Court as the ATO's lawyer at the time. I will not be taking up the 20 minutes on this. I made my point earlier. I make it again. I just want to stress to Senator Macdonald, through the chair, that I am not part of some Labor-Greens cabal in all of this. I am a participating member of the committee, and I do not regret a minute of it.