George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr President. The result is that the Australian people, through the most appropriate parliamentary mechanism, a Senate select committee, have, as a result of the behaviour of the government, been denied the opportunity—which the previous government on occasions like the ‘children overboard’ inquiry gave the then opposition—to examine a matter of serious public interest. Nothing could be more serious than a breach of the security of a conversation between the Prime Minister and the President of the United States of America, particularly when there is credible reason to believe that the source of the disclosure was the Prime Minister himself. As a result of the Labor Party’s opportunistic and hypocritical conduct, the opportunity for parliamentary scrutiny has been denied, and the Australian people should draw their own conclusions.