George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much indeed, Senator Sterle. I like having questions from you, Senator Sterle, you are a rough diamond but a gentleman. Senator Sterle, this is the position as I tried to explain to one of your colleagues earlier in the week. On the Thursday of the first week of estimates certain evidence was given to Senate estimates, in particular by a deputy secretary of my department in relation to the so-called Monis letter. On the afternoon of Monday of the second week of estimates I was told by the secretary of my department that it appeared that there was doubt about the accuracy of that evidence, so I immediately asked him to conduct an urgent inquiry within the Attorney-General's Department to establish the facts. He came back to me 72 hours later, early on the Thursday afternoon, and told me that the inquiry that I had asked him to conduct had established to a certainty that the earlier evidence was wrong. I immediately corrected the evidence that had been given. I immediately corrected it by having a written correction actually hand-delivered to the secretariat so as to ensure that the secretariat had that correction in good time for opposition senators to ask me questions about it before the Senate estimates committee adjourned, and they did.