Lyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

It is my understanding that a briefing was offered, but it was on the bill and not on the amendments. I did not know anything about the amendments until this morning. I think we would have said, as we usually do, that the Senate has its own processes for dealing with bills. Normally I would not say that we needed a briefing on the bill. But if it was a briefing on the amendments then you did not manage to get that across. Maybe that was a fault in my office, but it was not conveyed to me that this was about amendments that were not dealt with in the inquiry. We all have access to the report of that inquiry and, whilst I was not a participant in that hearing, I did read that report carefully and I know what it was about. There may have been a mix-up, Senator Conroy, but, as I understand it, no offer of a briefing on amendments came through in the last 24 hours.