Mr BEAZLEY —My question is directed to the Attorney-General. Can the Attorney- General confirm that official departmental advice and professional market research recommended against awarding this contract to DDB Needham Adelaide because `both the creative concepts submitted by DDB Needham tested extremely poorly with the target audience', `the submission barely meets the requirements of the brief', and if TV commercials were required `it is doubtful whether this could be done in time or within the budget allocated'? Is he prepared to table that advice and the supporting market research so that the House can assess the standards the government used when DDB Needham Adelaide was awarded the national gun control advertising contract?

Mr WILLIAMS —Yesterday, we had four sets of questions bowled up and they were all wide. I have made some inquiries as to some of the issues that were raised yesterday. Let me start with the question: did DDB Needham come to my office on 29 August and have a meeting with me or my office and were they, at that meeting, briefed on the results of qualitative research testing of their advertising proposal? I was a little nonplussed by that question yesterday. I discovered why—because on 29 August I was in Hanoi.

Mr Beazley —It was not a question about you; it was about your office.

Mr SPEAKER —Order! Members on my left!

Mr WILLIAMS —In relation to the public education campaign, I have had one adviser working on it virtually alone. On 29 August—in fact, between 28 August and 8 September—she was in Perth. None of the rest of my staff who were in Canberra or anywhere else on 29 August had any meeting with DDB Needham in connection with that campaign.

Mr Crean —The wrong day.

Government members interjecting—

Mr SPEAKER —Order! Members on my right!

Mr WILLIAMS —Let me start again: I said none of the rest of my staff has had any meeting with DDB Needham in connection with the campaign, any day. Neither I nor my staff briefed DDB Needham on the results of any qualitative research testing before that firm was selected.

Mr Martin Ferguson —Shaft Morris and protect yourself, Daryl!

Mr SPEAKER —The member for Batman!

Mr WILLIAMS —Neither I nor any member of my staff spoke to anyone from DDB Needham on any subject at all between that company's first and second pitches, the second pitch being the date on which they were selected.

I do not believe I have ever met anybody from DDB Needham. My adviser who has been handling the firearms education campaign was introduced to several of the representatives of DDB Needham at the question and answer session in Sydney and at the first pitch in Canberra. On those occasions I am advised they only exchanged small talk. They did not properly meet and did not discuss the campaign until a session was held with state and territory representatives in Canberra on 12 September, two days after they had been selected.

I was also asked yesterday: on 29 August, why did staff at DDB Needham Adelaide advise government officials to ring the Attorney's office if they wanted to speak to the firm's principals, Toby Ralph and John King, to tell them why they had been short-listed for the gun control advertising contract? I do not believe I have ever met Toby Ralph or John King. I have no idea why DDB Needham staff would have said such a thing. As I have indicated, there was no meeting in my office and no meeting was arranged.

I was asked: did my office subsequently provide officers of my department with a contact phone number for Mr Ralph and Mr King, namely, Canberra 273 2564? No-one in my office gave that phone number to my department as a contact number for Mr Ralph or Mr King. To the best of my staff's recollection, no-one in my office has at any time given that phone number to my department as a contact number for Mr Ralph or Mr King.

Yesterday I was not asked questions on the basis of `did you have a meeting'; I was asked questions on the basis of `what happened at that meeting'. I invite the Leader of the Opposition to get his facts straight before he makes assertions that involve sleazy innuendoes, before he tries to smear me or my staff. The Leader of the Opposition has strongly supported the gun control campaign. I suggest that, instead of trying to score cheap political points, he gets back on the track and helps us to get all those guns in by an effective advertising campaign nationwide.

You asked me about what brief came. I am not going to table working documents. There was a brief that came from my department that contained advice. That advice was before the second pitch, before the formal presentations had been taken. It was taken into account but it did not govern the decision that was to be made by me or my adviser in connection with the settlement of the successful contractors.

Mr Beazley —Mr Speaker, I ask for leave to table the relevant documents.

Leave not granted.

Mr Crean —Mr Speaker, I ask that the Attorney table the document from which he was reading.

Mr SPEAKER —The document is confidential and will not be tabled.