Mr. Kevin Cardiff:

Well, it depends on what a document is about, Senator. If a document is a Minister's speech or is a policy statement or whatever, well it's the Minister's statement and it's not ... so long as we have a democracy it's not for civil servants to insist. Civil servants ... and there's a real question about how ... to what extent the Civil Service should be an internal opposition, but I don't think Ministers particularly ever want it that way. But certainly the ... you would, if you were framing a response to a parliamentary question or you were framing a public speech, what you would be framing would be the document that you think the Minister wants. If you were framing your own advice, that would be different. So if you were framing your advice to the Minister that might have one thing in it, but once the Minister has decided a policy or once there is a policy line for something, then in terms of what you have the Minister say, because you draft the speech for him, or a line or a parliamentary question answer, then that's his speech you are trying to draft, not your own.