Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a brief personal explanation as I claim to have been misrepresented.

Leave granted.

I thank the chamber. If Senator Evans and, indeed, the Prime Minister in the other place wish to take selective quotes out of comments I may make in media interviews—

Alan Ferguson (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! You must move directly to where you claim to have been misrepresented, Senator Birmingham.

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I claim to have been misrepresented by Senator Evans in a response to a question he gave during question time today. If Senator Evans, in that response, chooses to take selective quotes out of a comment I made on the doors this morning, I would like to add the additional quotes. I said in addition: ‘The counterterrorism strategy is very important—absolutely—and of course the government needs to deliver on its counterterrorism strategy.’

Let there be no doubt about my commitment or the coalition’s commitment to combating terrorism and protecting all Australians, as demonstrated by those remarks I made this morning.