Senator BRANDIS (Queensland—Attorney-General, Vice-President of the Executive Council and Leader of the Government in the Senate) (14:28): Sorry, Senator Urquhart, I am just not going to indulge your fancy. The Prime Minister has said no such thing, and your assertion that he has done so is not the truth. What the Prime Minister has said and what the government says is that we should respect the decision of an independent umpire in determining wages and conditions. You know, Senator Urquhart, because you were a backbench member of the government that created the Fair Work Commission, that it was established for the very purpose of being an independent umpire. That is why it exists. That is why you set it up. If you are going to respect the decisions of an independent umpire then you have to— The PRESIDENT: Order. Pause the clock. A point of order, Senator Gallagher. Senator Gallagher: Mr President, it is on relevance. The question was: 'What work has the government undertaken on the overall economic and budgetary impact of the pay cut?' The PRESIDENT: The preamble to that question was 'given that the Prime Minister has endorsed the pay cut', and the Attorney-General rejected that completely in the beginning of his question. The Attorney-General has been directly relevant. Senator BRANDIS: Whether you like the decision or whether you do not, Senator Urquhart, if you are going to respect the industrial relations system, and if you are going to respect the rule of law, you ought to respect the decisions of an independent umpire. You asked me what the government is doing in relation to the matter. You touch upon the issue which Senator Cameron raised. The government last Friday made a submission to the Fair Work Commission on transitional arrangements. I do not know if you were listening when I answered Senator Cameron's question, but one of the things that the government submitted to the Fair Work Commission in dealing with the transitional arrangements—in other words, the arrangements to give effect to the implementation stage of its determination—was to ask the commission to take into consideration the potential economic impact and effects on employees and to take into effect the importance of mitigating any hardship that might be experienced. As well, the government asked the Fair Work Commission to ensure that transitional arrangements were made as simple as possible so that they could be executed in a way that was understandable to the employees. The transitional— (Time expired) The PRESIDENT: Senator Urquhart, a supplementary question.