Senator McKIERNAN (3:12 PM) —I am always pleased when Senator Brandis gets to his feet and speaks in this place. He made a number of contributions prior to the Queensland state election, and our polls went through the roof. He was consistent in that because, during the last session of the parliament, he made another couple of contributions and, again, we increased our vote. And he helped us again when he went out doorknocking in Ryan and discovered that that seat had not been properly represented by its Liberal member for 25 years. But do we hear any talk about that?

Senator Calvert —Relevance?

Senator McKIERNAN —I am responding to what was said by the earlier speakers.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT —Address the chair please, Senator McKiernan.

Senator McKIERNAN —I will indeed address the chair, Madam Deputy President. I commend the previous speaker on our side for moving this motion to take note of answers, but I think he made an error in saying that he was taking note of the answers provided by Senator Kemp.

Senator Faulkner —He meant waffle.

Senator McKIERNAN —It was indeed waffle, but I suppose he had to be proper in moving the motion to take note. Quite frankly, when you analyse what Minister Kemp is doing in this place, you can see that it is an absolute waste of taxpayers' money. Firstly, we should address this question: what does an Assistant Treasurer do? Certainly he does not respond to questions in this place. Here we are—and let me remind those on the other side—actually in 2001. We are not living a decade ago; we are living now, and we are talking about the problems of small businesses in 2001, in the third millennium. We ask from this side of the chamber: what is happening with the GST on small businesses?

Can we get the Assistant Treasurer, Senator Kemp, to respond to those very clear and very basic questions? No. We do not get responses. We could be kind to the minister and say that he does not understand what the questions are about. This minister is paid in the region of $200,000 per annum by the taxpayers in order to represent the decisions of government in this place, and he clearly does not do that, because he does not respond to the questions that are asked within his portfolio. I can only come to the conclusion that this minister is lazy. It is just absolute laziness on behalf of the minister that he will not respond. When he is asked a basic question like the one I asked today about the response to the recent survey by Australian Business Ltd, a very important survey to small business, what does the minister do? As Senator Faulkner said earlier, he waffles. Is it because he does not have the time or the ability to get his staff to do the analysis so he can bring the details in here? He is incompetent.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT —Order! Senator McKiernan, I really think that is reflecting too seriously, and you should withdraw.

Senator McKIERNAN —Sorry. If I said something that offends, I withdraw. I did not mean to. I do not withdraw the fact that I think he is lazy. I have reached that conclusion. I am putting that forward as a debating point. Very straightforward questions are addressed to the minister and we do not get responses to those questions. I am being kind to him in saying that I think the minister is lazy. I think that the big army of staff who come into this place and sit in the advisers box, and who are also paid enormous amounts of money, are probably being lazy too.

Senator Faulkner —No, don't blame the staff.

Senator McKIERNAN —You have to blame the staff, Senator Faulkner, because the staff have some obligations. They too are funded by the taxpayers of Australia to do the job and provide the minister with advice—as we see happening all the time with Senator Hill. As soon as a question is addressed to Senator Hill, you see the papers flutter from the advisers box straight over to Senator Hill and he gets up and reads in parrot fashion the answer to what is asked of him. It happens continually. At least your advisers, Senator Hill, are earning their money. One cannot say the same thing about Senator Kemp's staff. We on this side of the chamber will continue to put pressure on the government and force the government to respond to our questions. (Time expired)