Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

All applications for legal assistance, including for current and former ministers and their staff, are processed in accordance with the prescribed criteria outlined in legislation. It is, of course, not appropriate to comment on any matters currently before a court, as we have already indicated. It's also not appropriate to comment on any specific applications or approvals of legal assistance for MOP(S) Act employees, and I might just say that that answer is 100 per cent consistent with the answer that was consistently provided by the godfather of special ministers of state on the Labor side, former senator John Faulkner.