David Van (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Wow. We just heard about this side of politics being depressed after losing an election. We all know parties lose elections from time to time. When I first came into this place in 2019 what we saw on the other side was—how did Senator Cormann put it?—the seven stages of grief being displayed each and every day. What you can say about this side of the chamber is our tails are up. We're positive. We're fighting. We're holding this government to account, every time, every day. If we had more sitting days, you'd see them being held to account even more. Today people ask: Why do you need to hold them to account? Well, we just learned of our fifth example today.

The Attorney-General, Mr Dreyfus, the leading law officer of the land, can't even get right or understand what 'significant extent' means in the ministerial code—wow. Now, maybe it's okay for a foreign minister not to know what 'significant extent' means. Maybe it's okay for Senator Ayres not to know what it means—you know, he is just the Assistant Minister for Trade—but for the Attorney-General not to know what the term 'significant extent' means—