Senator CAMPBELL (Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer)(10.06 a.m.) —I am advised that all inquiries would be made public. It is not a matter of making them public; it is a matter of the means. This bill seeks to give the commission flexibility as to how the inquiry is made public and through which means. As you know, Senator Margetts, from your own experience on Senate committees, sometimes putting ads in national and regional newspapers is the appropriate way to do it. At other times, it is more appropriate just to send letters to the key organisations involved. The bill really is seeking to provide the commission with that flexibility, which will add to the practicality and efficiency of the organisation.

Quite frankly, the government is not proposing to spend much time debating this. That is the reason for it; we think it is a sensible provision. The opposition's proposal takes it back to the Industry Commission's existing proposals. But that is the reason. All inquiries would be public; it is just a matter of the means used for notifying people. We seek to ensure that that can be done in a way that is most efficient and that is appropriate to that particular inquiry.