The SPEAKER (3:09 PM) —Yesterday the member for Perth asked me to make inquiries as to whether the Hansard record of Monday, 8 March had been changed by the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Hansard managers have confirmed that the minister did not seek to change the record. Hansard made an error by not omitting from the quotation words which the minister had excluded. I should indicate that in conversation with Hansard it would seem that the Hansard recorder at the time, in an effort to be diligent about this, had gone back to the Insiders program and quoted the remarks from the member in full, and it was not the remarks in full that the minister had used in his quote in the House.

Hansard editors take extreme care in ensuring that extracts from interviews et cetera are recorded accurately when they are quoted by members. In this case, too much emphasis was placed on reflecting the accuracy of the transcript of the interview rather than recording only the words used by the minister. As I said yesterday, all members are grateful to Hansard for the changes that they make. Errors of this kind, although regrettable, are rare. As one would expect, the record of the parliament as recorded in the greens will be amended in future editions.