Senator CORMANN (Western Australia—Minister for Finance and Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) (14:26): Again, this is a matter that I directly addressed in my very comprehensive statement to the Senate earlier today. This is probably a good time to again confirm that at no stage did I ever receive any advice from the Department of Finance that the lease signed on 1 December in itself, or in the absence of rental payments, could cause a potential breach of section 44 of the Constitution. I refer you to the relevant quote in my statement to the Senate: … subsequent to that—and aware of all the information that had emerged by then—on 18 February 2016, the Department of Finance advised me that it would be open to me to approve the payment of rent for the Day electorate office going forward from 1 March 2016. However, when seeking to put in place this payment, further information came to light— The PRESIDENT: Order! Pause the clock. Senator Wong, on a point of order. Senator Wong: Mr President: a point of order on relevance. I appreciate that the minister has made a statement. However, he was asked a very specific question by Senator Collins. That was not in relation to the issue he is now rereading, but whether or not he was aware that the bank account receiving rental payments for former Senator Day's electorate office was linked to Senator Day—whether he was aware of that fact—prior to the election on 2 July. The PRESIDENT: I will remind the minister that that was the key element of the question. Senator CORMANN: And it is, of course, very important, which is why I made the statement to put into context what I knew when. Going back to where I was: … when seeking to put in place this payment, further information came to light—namely, that the bank account to receive the rental payments was an account linked to then Senator Day— That is what I said earlier today— Given this, a conscious decision was made that the Commonwealth would not pay rent to the owners of the 77 Fullarton Road property in the circumstances, neither by way of reimbursement for the period from 1 July 2015 nor prospectively from 1 March 2016. In fact, at no stage during then Senator Day's occupation of the 77 Fullarton Road property as his electorate office did the Commonwealth pay any rent for those electoral office premises. I understood at the time that the non-payment of rent meant that any potential breach of section 44 of the Constitution had been avoided. Indeed, at no point did I receive any advice from the Department of Finance that the lease signed on 1 December 2015 in itself— (Time expired) The PRESIDENT: Senator Collins, a supplementary question.