Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I should perhaps tell the chamber that I have just got a text message from someone who has been listening in, an academic who asks, 'What have you got against Orwell?' I do not have anything against Eric Blair, or George Orwell. I understand the parliamentary secretary's instructions are very limited, but there will be some review of undefined terms and with an undefined time frame. Will it be in the next 12 months? If it cannot be in the next 12 months then I cannot see that the government is serious about it, because it will then push it to a new parliament. I would have thought that a six- or 12-month time frame would at least be a useful exercise. Would it be undertaken by Mr Baird? Would it be undertaken by the department or some other mechanism? Or would the government be open to a Senate standing committee looking at this as a discrete issue? I do not know why you laughed then, Parliamentary Secretary, but I am interested in finding out why.