Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

was not seen by me. As Minister Cormann noted, that was an error. And that is an error which includes substantial error on the part of me and my office. That obviously put my Senate colleagues and Senator Ruston in a very difficult situation. I take full responsibility for that deficient process in my office.

To the extent that the tweet was in any way interpreted to support the motion, that's not what was meant by the tweet. The tweet said that our senators deplore racism of any kind. It was meant to support Senator Ruston's statement that she and the government condemn all forms of racism. So I simply want to say that the criticism of me and my office is a completely fair cop, and I accept and apologise for the process in my office.

I use the language 'fair cop' because that is precisely the language the Leader of the Opposition wisely used when he was criticised about a year ago for producing a full political television ad meant for the Queensland market with an all-white cast under the banner of 'Australians first'—

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

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