Mr McMULLAN (2:18 PM) —My question is to the Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business. Minister, I refer to this morning's revelation that the final amount you will pay for your telecard foolishness is $46,750. Does this amount represent repayment of all calls made on your telecard? If not, which calls are you not now repaying? Were any of these calls made by you after 1994?

Mr REITH (Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business) —I had hand-delivered to the relevant minister's office this morning a personal cheque for $46,757. In addition to that, an earlier amount of $950 was paid, making a total of $47,707. I am told by the Department of Finance and Administration that that represents the amount paid by the taxpayer, the complete cost for all calls from 18 January. They asked me what was a reasonable date. We had a discussion as to the commencement date. There is no doubt that, as from 18 January, I have paid for every phone call made from that day through to 30 August 1999, when this matter was brought to my attention, including 23 phone calls that were made by two members of staff. In terms of the amount paid by the taxpayer, that is every last cent I have paid—noting, I might say, that I have no civil liability for that but that I have accepted the political responsibility for every last dollar paid by the taxpayer.