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

Mr President, before asking my first supplementary, I invite you to review the Hansard and report back to the Senate after your consideration of whether the minister defied two directions from you to address the question. My supplementary question is this: what is the government's estimate of the costs suffered by the Commonwealth as a result of the abandonment of the tender process and the additional costs which the Commonwealth will incur as a result of the tender process having to be repeated? Does the minister accept that responsibility for this debacle must lie somewhere within the government and that the liability for the damages caused by the leak must also fall upon the person or persons within the government who corrupted the process?