Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Centenary of ANZAC) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, we have a tram, Senator Brandis, and it is a beautiful tram. In fact, if Senator Gallagher were here we could talk about trams in the ACT. But the significant thing about this tram is that, if you catch it in the CBD, it is free. So you can catch that tram to anywhere else you might like to go. You can catch it down to the train station and you can catch it to any of the bus connections on any of the through-streets in Adelaide. And it is a couple of minutes walk from my office, and that is why we selected this particular place—because it was easy, for people who might want to come and visit their senator with a particular problem, to get into town and get to the office.

I have had a look—not a close look, but a look—at the office that Senator Day moved into on Fullarton Road. To the best of my knowledge, Senator Sterle, there are no buses, no trams and no trains running along Fullarton Road. I could be wrong about that; there may be one. But, to the best of my knowledge, there are no trams, trains or buses running along the road to Senator Day's current office.

So the question mark that I would raise is this. There was a perfectly good office in the Adelaide CBD that had two years to run on the lease. Obviously the department was more confident about my likely re-election in the 2013 elections than the people of South Australia were. So there were two years to run on that lease. It was perfectly possible for Senator Day to move in there. Why didn't he? That is the sixty-four-dollar question: why didn't he?