George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Madam Deputy President. Let me make it perfectly clear that, although we believe your ruling was wrong, we respect it because we respect your office.

Since Senator Ludlam rose to make the speech he has just made, I have now been advised of certain matters concerning the two questions on notice. Might I remind honourable senators that the purpose of standing order 74(5) is to require an explanation of a minister if the minister does not answer a question within the stipulated time, and the convention to which reference has been made in the debate on an earlier point of order is the convention or indeed the courtesy that a minister called upon to give an explanation will be given advance notice of that fact. And, as I say, that was not given.

I can now tell the Senate why that advance notice apparently was not given. Senator Ludlam's office first contacted the foreign minister's office to advise that this procedure was going to be invoked at 2.45 pm today—2.45 pm today—three-quarters of the way into question time. No doubt because the foreign minister's office had more important things to do—and the foreign minister being in question time, as, of course, was I—that request, made at 2.45 pm today, was not conveyed to my office by the time that Senator Ludlam got to his feet to move this motion. I leave it to all honourable senators to consider whether to give advance notice 15 minutes before the end of question time is a good faith invocation of standing order 74(5). Plainly it is not. So, Senator Ludlam, please do not come in here and get on your high horse and go on about 'bad faith' when you have, for the very purpose of giving the speech in which you accuse others of bad faith, engaged in the worst of bad faith and trickiness.

I can also advise the Senate that one of the two questions concerning which the answer was sought only fell due yesterday. That is the advice that I have been given. So, if there has been a default, it is a default of a matter of hours. Once again, it might be thought to be bad faith and trickiness for a senator to invoke this procedure in relation to a question the answer to which on any view is a few hours late. If you were genuinely interested in providing the answer, one would have thought that, as a matter of common courtesy and common sense, you would have contacted the foreign minister's office directly. But I am sorry to say that, when it comes to the trickiness and bad faith of Senator Ludlam, it gets even worse. I have also learnt that Senator Ludlam in fact had a meeting with the foreign minister herself as recently as this morning and never raised this matter with her. So I think we can draw our own conclusions about the way in which Senator Ludlam—not for the first time, I am sorry to say—has conducted himself in abusing the processes of this chamber.