Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I suspect this will be the first of many times that Senator Shoebridge seeks to mischaracterise the government's position. We've become pretty well acquainted with that style of debate from Senator Shoebridge in his short time here. But, as Senator Shoebridge knows, there are different approaches that are taken by different states as to how they handle public hearings. New South Wales takes a different approach to, for instance, what happens in South Australia, what happens in the Northern Territory, and possibly other jurisdictions.

Where the government has landed—and let's not forget there were people in this place who didn't think there should be any public hearings whatsoever, and that is not the position of our government. We think there is a place for public hearings, for corruption investigations, but we think they should apply in what the commission considers to be exceptional circumstances. I look forward to Senator Shoebridge telling me something different to what I just said, in his next contribution.