Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Multicultural Engagement) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Leader of the Government in the Senate, Senator Wong. Minister, the following are your words from 2021, directed at the coalition government: 'A serious crime was covered up.' 'It's a cover-up.' 'The cover-up is unreal.' In an estimates hearing that year, Senator Gallagher stated: 'It is a cover-up of the cover-up of the cover-up. It's like a triple cover-up.' You followed that with, 'You'—the government—'should be ashamed of yourselves.' In a relevant recent Federal Court judgement, Justice Lee found, when examined properly and without partiality, the cover-up allegation was objectively short on facts and long on speculation and internal inconsistencies. He further stated that the publication of the cover-up component caused:

… confusion, and did much collateral damage—including to the fair and orderly progress of the underlying allegation of sexual assault through the criminal justice system …

Do you now accept that no cover-up occurred and that the politicisation of this matter caused much collateral damage?