Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge that. It's simply the reference by a Liberal frontbencher to the issue of internals. At this time it just seemed to be something that really required comment. It really required comment. But what I would say to the senator—and I note that by the second question we seem to be off the budget, which is interesting. But we're here. We hope to have many, many dixers so we can tell the Australian people about not only what the government is doing but what the opposition are doing on the budget and their opposition to tax cuts.

This legislation is before the Senate. You've made these points, and I'm sure that these points will be made in estimates and also in the committee stage. You would know that the Prime Minister and Senator Urquhart have made really clear the importance of jobs in Tasmania. You would know that this is something that as a cabinet government we have worked through. You would also know that this is a very specific amendment to address a flaw in the EPBC Act and that Labor Party is not going to stand by and let workers lose their jobs because of a broken law.