Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

Senator, you should know—and perhaps you would like to speak to Senator Minchin about this—how act of grace payments are dealt with. They are certainly not dealt with through this type of question in question time. If there is an implication that we do not regard these issues as important, I completely reject that. I have outlined to you, Senator, the measures that the government has put in place to remedy these issues. I have offered in good faith to sit down with you to seek to deal with this. But it is quite clear from the way that you are approaching these questions that an outcome is probably not the thing that you are seeking; you are seeking to make a point here. The government understands absolutely the difficulties and problems with this program. We have been upfront about that, which is why we have put a substantial amount of effort into the remediation programs that regrettably have been necessary. And we will continue to do that. (Time expired)