Kerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Primary Industries, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I thank the minister for confirming that this is in fact a government decision. Can the minister explain the department’s failure to provide advice to its minister? Can it be that they knew that their minister was happy to see non-forestry managed investment schemes closed down? Is the minister able to explain how Minister McGauran could have allowed his personal prejudices to blind him to the impact of the government’s decision on thousands of jobs in regional and rural Australia? If the minister was happy to seek information from agricultural organisations, again, why didn’t he bother to get advice from his own department, the department which advises him on so many things?