Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Through the chair, I am just going to focus my remarks on the fact that I notified the foreign minister's office. Her failure to contact you, as the representing minister, or your failure to pick up the phone is not my problem, nor is it the Senate's problem. So I will address my comments briefly to the unanswered questions on notice. They were placed on the Notice Paper on 17 March. The custom in this place is that within 30 days the Senate is provided with a reply, and that has not occurred. Senator Brandis has failed to provide the Senate with any satisfactory explanation as to why these questions remain unanswered. The substance is the decision by the Australian government, I would argue, an unprecedented decision, under longstanding policy by both Liberal and Labor governments to participate in good faith in negotiations at the United Nations level to work towards the elimination of the existence of nuclear weapons. And it is a remarkable lapse—