Sean Edwards (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise also to take note of answers and, particularly, the opposition's assertions about the scrutiny of the acting leader here. This is a very serious issue—the Lindt cafe siege and the security of this country are things that no Attorney-General would ever intend to stint on. I am sure it was not the former Attorney-General's intention to do that either, but it is interesting that Mr Dreyfus, the former Attorney-General of this country, was asleep at the wheel, if you could put it that way, on a national security issue. His record on the protection of our borders is nothing short of incompetent. He has tried to score a cheap political point out of a national tragedy and he ignores the fact that the matter was dealt with in exactly the same way that it would have been under him as the previous Attorney-General.

The letter was handled in accordance with long-established Attorney-General's Department procedures. Those procedures did not identify anything untoward in the letter. Those senators opposite—as do I and my staff—open mail every day in this place and at electorate offices. You attract the very highest level of intellect and capacity in the representations made to you, but you also receive some fairly crazy stuff. Mr Dreyfus also avoids the fact that the letters from Monis were sent to him as well as to other Labor ministers, including then Prime Minister Gillard and then Attorney-General McClelland. That is all missing from this debate, isn't it?

Senator Conroy interjecting—