Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Hansard source

Very briefly, ‘because the overwhelming majority are’ is not a good reason as to why they should not be in this case. This is a matter of particular significance. It is of course distorting the usual operations of the ACCC. It is the minister intervening in an extraordinary way in what would normally be a decision-making process of the ACCC. We think those extraordinary arrangements do warrant—although it may be an unusual process, or not the norm—some oversight by this parliament as a disallowable instrument. The minister has not been able to give a reason—other than, ‘This is what happens in the majority of other similar circumstances’—why in this case he should not be subject to that scrutiny.