Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Or the chair of the committee who is dealing with the inquiry that the Senate referred to it—you're not going to give any of those colleagues the respect of saying, 'By the way, we're going to do this.' You're just going to rock up and discharge legislation from the Notice Paper while Senator Ciccone and his committee are in the middle of an inquiry. And you say, Senator Pocock—

I'll take the interjection, Senator Pocock. He said, 'It's a Labor dominated inquiry.' That's what legislation committees are, Senator. They are legislation committees, which are chaired by the government, and that situation has been the case for a very long time. That doesn't prevent minority reports. As someone who has spent more time in opposition than in government, I wrote many minority reports. I did the work. You do the work. You show up; you do the work, and you provide a minority report.

Senator Pocock, you joked this morning about not going to question time. You joked this morning about not turning up for work. If any of your constituents didn't turn up for work, how would their job be? What you could do, Senator, is actually turn up to the committee with your friends in the coalition—