Mr. Rob Wright:

I do not feel that. I think there was a collective problem here. I think the Department should have done a better job in presenting advice and done it in a rigorous way and should not have held a calm view of that period.

It is one thing - Senator O'Keefe referred to the chart - to say that early advice was there, but my God, after seven or eight years of it should there not be more concern than there was at first? Should things not have been stepped up? In retrospect, they should have been. There are a lot of things and the real issue is if we asked people who were there at the time what they should have done differently, they would probably have a longer list. There are lessons there. However, the question is, should both parties have done more? Yes, if the Minister of the day received a very clear and coherent piece of advice and still did not follow it. Would he have followed it? Perhaps or perhaps not, but I must say I think this was received by the Minister of the day as a tough, fair and balanced report. I think it is fair and balanced.