Cory Bernardi (SA, Australian Conservatives) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, indeed, Minister. I am not surprised, because your new approach hadn't been presented when the Productivity Commission was talking about the constitutionality of the government directly funding loans to farms instead of via the states—if I am right, because I think it was some time in 2012 or thereabouts. I just want to make this clear. You have constitutional advice about concerns that you say are not applicable because, when they were raised, they were not relevant to this current thing. It is like torture; a spaghetti jumble—what happened and how and when it came about. I just want to make sure that the government is 100 per cent confident that what they are doing is compliant with the Constitution, even though I am getting mixed messages with respect to this.