Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

As I think I made clear, I am not expert on this legislation. I am filling in for Senator Sherry, who is away on sick leave. I think that the nub of it is that you are effectively providing a blanket provision, and the government’s view is that that should not occur, that there ought to be some testing of the merits and, if there are problems, the consumer ought to be able to challenge that. I think we accept that principle, and that is why I talked about a robust regulatory impact assessment of the proposed prohibition, which explores the full implications of such a step with the agreement of states and territories. I think our objection is to the blanket nature of your approach and I think we are fundamentally in disagreement about that. If I understand it, that is the nub of the disagreement.