THE HON MARK DREYFUS QC MP
SHADOW ATTORNEY-GENERAL
SHADOW MINISTER FOR NATIONAL SECURITY
ACTING SHADOW MINISTER FOR JUSTICE
MEMBER FOR ISAACS
KEENAN FOLLOWS BRANDIS IN MISLEADING PARLIAMENT
Today in Question Time Justice Minister Michael Keenan repeated Attorney-General Senator Brandis's claim that the Solicitor-General was consulted before a legally-binding direction was made which vastly limited his independence.
We know this is not true, because the Solicitor-General himself has said it is not. Mr Keenan has misled the House of Representatives, just as Senator Brandis misled the Senate on the same matter.
This government is refusing to acknowledge the facts, despite them being clearly and starkly put in front of them by the Solicitor-General. In fact, since the Solicitor-Generals statements last week, Senator Brandis and other government members have simply doubled down on their lies.
Senator Brandis has tried to misrepresent the facts of this dispute, describing it as merely a semantic issue. This could not be further from the truth. The Solicitor-General has denied wholly that he was consulted. Senator Brandis does not get to make up a definition of consultation that suits him, and allows him to get around the truth.
How many second chances does Senator Brandis get? After his debacle with Section 18C and the right to be bigots, and fudging of metadata laws, misleading the Parliament on repeated occasions must be enough for Mr Turnbull to sack him.
Mr Turnbull must declare if he still has confidence in Senator Brandis to do his job adequately as the first law officer of this nation. If he does not, he must sack him.
TUESDAY, 11 OCTOBER 2016
