David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I don't think telling us when the consultation will conclude is pre-empting the consultation process. To suggest so is either a misunderstanding of consultation, either you already have a predetermined outcome and the consultation is a farce and therefore telling us when it's going to end will also determine the outcome, which would be unfortunate in a relatively new government, or it just misunderstands the question I was asking, which is: when will the process come to an end, and when will you be bringing substantive amendments to the House? Telling us when it ends doesn't pre-empt the outcome. Giving us the time frame within which the consultation is intended to operate doesn't predetermine the outcome, and, again, Minister, I'd ask for a good-faith engagement with this, because it's important to many in the public sector and it's important to many key stakeholders. They would like to know what the commitment is for the government to actually fix this and when it's going to happen.