Senator HILL (Minister for the Environment)(4.10 p.m.) —by leave—This is the second half of this attempt to frustrate the government's program by recalling this committee unnecessarily—a committee that had finished its business for this session—in the hope that something might be dragged out of it that could be politically damaging in some way.

If there was any case for this, if there was an argument that something had been missed before or at the last hearing, then it might be a different matter, but no attempt has been made to develop a case for it other than that the opposition wants another go at it. In other words, it wants to drag the committee members out, and all the public servants, to run through it again just in case the opposition had forgotten a question on the last occasion and out of that fishing trip it might gain something for which it thinks it can get some political mileage. This turns the process into a farce, I would suggest. For that reason, this should be opposed.

There was another question asked at the administrative services committee that dealt with the same matter and an answer was given that was subsequently found to be incorrect. When that came to our attention and the opposition wanted to re-open the inquiry to pursue matters arising out of the incorrect answer, our response was that it was proper for them to do so and we agreed, without having to come in here and fight the numbers, to that committee being re-opened to explore that matter. That did not seem to us to be unreasonable. A mistake had been made; it had been corrected, but nevertheless that does in our view give the opposition a legitimate opportunity to come back and say it wants to explore the consequences of the now correct answer.

But that does not apply to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee. There has been no suggestion that any answer that was given to this committee was either inadequate or wrong, that there were matters that were suppressed or that there was any reason at all for this committee to be re-opened. It seems to us to be another waste of time, a further frustration of the government's business, and for that reason we will vote against it.