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

I had no discussions with Rio about this bill—none at all. As to Fortescue, I had a meeting with Mr Andrew Forrest about two or three months ago in my office in which he came to see me about human slavery and to give me a briefing about human slavery, a cause about which I would have hoped you would care but plainly do not. During the course of my meeting with Mr Forrest I have no recollection of any discussion of anything other than the question of human slavery. I put that on the record for the sake of completeness because I have had one meeting with Mr Forrest during the time in which this bill has been before the parliament. We did not discuss the bill; we discussed human slavery.

In relation to whether the Prime Minister has discussed this with representatives of either of those companies or anyone else, I am not in a position to tell you.