David Fawcett (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

and I do come back to the point that, when the question was asked about Mr Brough—

Senator Bilyk interjecting—

when the question was asked about Mr Brough—and I hope members opposite are listening to that; that is three times now, or four times—what Senator Wong asked was a question about a pre-emptive statement by Mr Keenan, or advice. And the Attorney-General correctly answered. So the political nature of this comes up when Senator Wong then thinks, on the basis of Mr Keenan's answer, that she has a 'gotcha' moment and, rather than either studying carefully what he actually said or, worse, perhaps admitting the context of what he said, seeks to then embarrass or show up Senator Brandis in this place, who correctly points out that what Mr Keenan had said was about his reporting post the event—two quite distinct events. So Senator Brandis quite correctly reported that.

Subsequently in the question Senator Brandis said that he did not agree with the premise of the question. There was great consternation among those opposite, including Senator Wong complaining that he was not being relevant to the question. Mr Deputy President, can I take you back to 21 August when Senator Wong, in answering a question, said: 'I don't agree with the premise of the question.' And she goes on. There was another time, on 13 September 2012, and in fact it was, funnily enough, an interaction between Senator Brandis and Senator Wong. Senator Wong says: 'Mr President, on the point of order: once again Senator Brandis is rephrasing the question. The question commenced with a false premise. It is very difficult for the minister to be directly relevant to a false premise.'