Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Duniam, you are actually a nice young lad for someone on that side. At least you do not scream and yell, like a number of other people on your side do because they think that being loud gets the message across, makes them more realistic or something like that. But I do have to pull you up, Senator Duniam, for saying that we often misrepresent answers. One problem we on this side have is that we cannot get proper, decent answers, especially from Senator Brandis. Senator Brandis so often says—and Hansard will show this time and time again—'I am not aware of that comment. I never heard that. No-one spoke to me.' At least once or twice every question time we get those comments. I do have to wonder how many staff Senator Brandis has and what they actually do, because surely his staff should be telling him when these things are in the media—that is, all over the media, not just in one piddly little newspaper.