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Wednesday, 6 July 2011
Page: 4238

Senator NASH (New South Wales—Deputy Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) (17:45): I was actually in the middle of asking some questions of the minister and I think the minister may be placed in a rather invidious position with the continuation of this questioning. Following on from his previous answer that was indeed an entire load of gobbledegook and the fact that he could use common sense and apples for apples as criteria to determine whether or not a project was going to pass the common practice test was quite an extraordinary thing for me to have to take back to my constituency and explain to them that the minister thought they were fine criteria. Given that the minister is not here, I certainly do not expect you, Minister Evans, to answer that question, given the complex nature of the question that I asked and the legislation itself.

Could I perhaps just ask at this stage—and I understand time constraints and other pressing matters—is the minister intending to return to deal with this? Is he on his way or is he not going to be with us for some time?