Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

But not because, Senator Macdonald, he thinks he might not like the advice that he is going to get from the Solicitor-General. But I would bet my bottom dollar that that is why this Attorney is shopping around for legal advice, not only to the AGS but out to the private bar as well: because he thinks he is not going to like the advice he gets from the Solicitor-General. That is not good enough, from the first law officer of this country. It is not good enough by any stretch. And we will be prosecuting this matter at length next week in Senate estimates, to get to the bottom of whether this numerical increase—this increase in expenditure on total internal legal services in the Attorney-General's Department—is actually a reflection of a pattern of behaviour by this Attorney-General, who not only has, arguably, misled this Senate, but is presiding over a disturbing pattern of working around the Solicitor-General and shopping out requests for legal advice to try to find the advice that will be politically palatable to the government. (Time expired)