Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I'm happy to withdraw. We can talk about a deal instead—a dodgy deal instead. Is that preferable, Senator Patrick? Minister, you're not willing to tell the Senate the total price of this deal, but I'm going to take a rough stab that a judge's salary is $300,000 or $400,000 a year, possibly more. So for three judges and a registrar, we're looking at another million or two dollars on top of the $14.3 million. So the total cost of this deal with Senator Patrick to obtain his vote and his support is certainly more than $15 million.

The TEMPORARY CHAIR: Minister, do you wish to respond to that?