Derek McDowell (Labour)

Unfortunately, nothing seemed to happen and the Department was unaware of subsequent developments, including the victory in the High Court, let alone what happened in the Supreme Court. While the Senator can be critical of these things, that is the truth.

It would be much more convenient for me to say that I was monitoring this affair very closely, was reading every submission and all the rest of it. It would be much easier to tell that lie. However, I must tell this House and the people the truth, that is, that there was no communication whatever with the Department from December 2002 until last Tuesday morning with regard to this matter. I will look into this, because it is important that the Department should have its radar screen and that it should be aware of such matters.

However, if the Senator has asked whether it is a matter of integrity or truthfulness, this is the situation. Of course I would have been very interested in the subject. As a lawyer, I would have been fascinated by the manner in which apparently we won in the High Court, unbeknown to me, and that the case went to two hearings in the Supreme Court. It would have been of major interest to me, had I known about it. However, I did not know about it.

I want to make some points regarding the Director of Public Prosecutions. It is true that he had carriage of the appeal in the sense that he shared responsibility with officials from the Office of the Attorney General. The Attorney General himself was not involved. Second, it is also true to say that he sucessfully prosecuted the defence of this case in the High Court and prosecuted it very vigorously in the Supreme Court. It is also true that throughout this time, he kept an official in the Attorney General's office fully aware of the situation. However, the Attorney General himself——