Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by Senators Cormann and Colbeck to the questions asked by Senators Green, Chisholm, Kitching and Bilyk.

As was very clear from the evidence given by Sport Australia today in the hearing that we had before lunch, the noose is tightening around the Prime Minister's office. It's becoming very clear that the Prime Minister's office was up to its neck in both sports rorts 1 and sports rorts 2. What we now know, by a combination of persistence by the opposition and information being provided by a range of witnesses, is that 136 emails went into and out of the Prime Minister's office between the dates of 17 October 2018 and 11 April 2019.

You might recall, because I know you take quite a bit of interest in this, Madam Deputy President, that when this whole issue came up and it appeared that the Prime Minister's office was involved, and the Prime Minister himself was involved, the defence that he made—and he dismissed the claims—was he said he was just passing on representations.

Let's go back to those figures: 136 emails over that just over six-month period. During that time there were actually only 122 working days. We're in a situation where more than one email into and out of the Prime Minister's office occurred for the whole of that six months. I ask you, Madam Deputy President, is that simply passing on representations? No, Madam Deputy President, that's an active involvement—an active, consistent, persistent involvement—in the working out of where sports rorts 1 and sports rorts 2 would end.

I know Senator McKenzie has taken the fall and I know Senator Canavan followed in pretty quick succession. But the reality is, when you look at the factual circumstances here of those 136 emails over 122 days the Prime Minister's office was right up to its neck in all of this.

What else do we now know? We know about the 28 versions of sports rorts 1 that transpired between the—