Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

The commitment from the government is that we will legislate the committee this year. The work of the committee is valuable to the government. We are a government that is not afraid of evidence, argument, alternative points of view and, of course, pressing the case for change. In addition to the substantive point about when would the committee be a legislated function of government, the government will listen carefully to the deliberations of the committee, its recommendations, but also sift carefully through the reasoning and rationale of the experts who have been engaged in that committee. That does not mean, of course, that the government will be in a position to agree with the committee, and I anticipate that that will continue to be a feature of the engagement between the committee and the government over time.