Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Frankly, that's actually not good enough, Minister. You've received a perfectly reasonable question from Senator Patrick. I'll just draw your attention to the fact that courts do look at the Hansard record of debates such as these to assist them with ruling on issues that come before them, because the courts try, in some circumstances, to understand the intent of the parliament in passing legislation. When legislation is drafted, not every circumstance is foreseeable or predictable. What Senator Patrick is trying to do here is his job—his job as a senator in this house of review and his job as a senator to tease out from you, Minister Reynolds, your intent in the drafting of this legislation and, ultimately, the intent of the parliament in passing this legislation. We're trying to help the courts here, and you are hindering us in that duty.

Senator Patrick has asked you a perfectly reasonable question about how this legislation may apply in a certain set of circumstances. You can call it 'hypothetical' all you like, but I actually don't accept that characterisation of it. The way I would describe Senator Patrick's question is that he is asking it in an attempt to inform the Senate and to inform future potential deliberations of the judiciary, and for you to simply sit there and not answer it is not only contemptuous of the Senate, it's contemptuous of our judiciary.