Mr. Conor King:

I thank the Senator and all members of the committee for their kind offer of assistance in this. The Senator correctly referred to the previous Defence (Amendment) Bill. If I recall correctly, the pre-legislative scrutiny process was significant and detailed, but the report of the pre-legislative scrutiny process was not issued prior to the Bill moving through the Houses. They did not wait for the committee at the time. It is very important that does not occur again.