Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—Could I just indicate to the chamber that Senator Kim Carr, the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, and Senator Stephen Conroy, the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, will be absent from Senate question time this week—from 16 to 19 June—due to their ministerial commitments overseas. This week, Senator Carr is in San Diego leading a delegation of over 450 Australian corporations, universities and public research agencies at Bio-08, the world’s largest biotechnology convention, and has a series of other commitments. Senator Conroy is the vice chair of the OECD conference on the future of the internet economy in Korea. This meeting is a once in a decade opportunity for Australia to take a leading role in shaping the international digital economy.

The ministerial and representational responsibilities for this week will be undertaken in the following manner: Senator Nick Sherry will represent the Treasurer and Assistant Treasurer; Senator Ludwig will represent the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy; Senator Faulkner will represent the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government; I will represent the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, the Minister for Resources and Energy and the Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors and the Service Economy; and Senator Wong will represent the Minister for Education. In advising the chamber, I apologise to senators that they were not notified until this morning of the changes of arrangement. That was an error on my part.

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—As the former government, we do understand that on occasion it is unavoidable to have senior ministers absent from parliament, and it was always our view that it is not good practice to have senior ministers absent unless absolutely necessary. So I do want to record our disappointment that we have today an announcement that two senior ministers will be absent from this Senate for not one or two days but the full week. I accept Senator Evans’s apology for the fact that we only got the notice this morning. The notice itself does not give any indication of what the ministers are doing except to say that they are overseas. So I thank Senator Evans for at least informing us now of their activities overseas. But I do record, given this absence, that it is surprising that Senator Kim Carr is not present to answer questions about the government’s $35 million handout to Toyota. We are even more surprised that Senator Conroy, who has responsibility for Treasury matters in this place, is not here to handle his responsibility for Treasury bills in this Senate during this week. So we express our disappointment and hope that this is not indicative of how the government intends to treat the Senate for the next 2½ years.