Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

The answer to that question is no. Again, I would encourage the senator to read my comprehensive note to the Senate yesterday in more detail. Even after that information had been made available to the department, the department advised me explicitly that it was open to me to pay rent in relation to that particular office. At no point, at that stage or subsequently, did I have advice, in the context of the information about vendor financing arrangements, that rent could not be paid. Of course ultimately, when further information came to light—and some of it has been raised by Labor senators over the last two days—we made a conscious and deliberate decision not to pay rent, which in our judgement meant that we avoided any conflict with section 44 of the Constitution. Of course, that is a question that will now have to be settled by the High Court, because eminent legal opinion received on 27 October suggests otherwise.