Cory Bernardi (SA, Australian Conservatives) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for her frankness. I hope you are able to obtain the information, given it is a government body—the Productivity Commission—that has raised concerns about the constitutionality of the approach that the government has taken with this bill. There is really no excuse for not having that information available, given you are responding to concerns that were raised by an organisation that is funded—you may want to turn to your left, Minister; I think someone is trying to assist. Further to that, whilst you gave an assurance that you had received constitutional advice, you were unprepared or unwilling to table that advice in accordance with regular government practice. Can you assure this chamber that the advice received on the date you don't know by the organisation that you don't know was, in fact, validating the approach that the government has taken in light of the Productivity Commission's concerns?