George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for the Arts and Sport) Share this | Hansard source

If I may finish, you also expressed scepticism about doing this through the mechanism of funding agreements and wondered how we will know what the provisions of the funding agreements are. Might I direct your attention to section 30.25 of the Higher Education Support Act 2003, which deals with funding agreements, and, in particular, to subsection (4), which provides:

The Minister must cause a copy of the agreement to be laid before each House of the Parliament within 15 sitting days of that House after the making of the agreement.

So that, I hope, addresses that issue.

Senator Stott Despoja, I think the substance of your question was really the same question as was asked of me by Senator Joyce. That question was carefully considered by the minister’s office. The minister’s office provided a detailed and considered response which I read onto the record in response to Senator Joyce’s question, and I have also read onto the record the minister’s response to a question asked of her in the consideration in detail stage of the debate in the other place. I do not want to run the risk of confusing the issue by adding my own gloss or paraphrase on what this means, but I direct you to the minister’s answer and the minister’s office’s considered response.