Senator CROSSIN (Northern Territory) (16:32): I rise this afternoon to provide some input into this matter of public importance as well, and in my brief contribution just make two points here. Firstly, I think that the coalition wants to conveniently forget the facts surrounding Minister Roxon's involvement in the statements last week and the settlement with Mr Ashby. Senator Faulkner outlined a number of those but I think what we need to also add is that the Commonwealth in this matter was being sued and was in fact defending that complaint. It filed an application and had made submissions that the proceedings were vexatious and that there was an abuse of process. So the Commonwealth was actually involved in this matter. It is not unusual that from time to time the Attorney-General would be seeking briefings about the Commonwealth's involvement in legal matters and cases. We have got the internationally famous tobacco litigation case and we have of course the chaplains case. There is also international whaling and the Malaysia agreement—the list goes on—where the Commonwealth is party to the action, and the Commonwealth and the minister involved, that is the Attorney-General, would receive briefings about that. That is her involvement. The Commonwealth was party to this matter before the court because they were being sued. The counterclaim was that we believed that it was an abuse of process. There is one thing here that we sought to then do: to negotiate a settlement and resolve the area in which the Commonwealth was involved, and that is what was done. Already, as we know—and it is public knowledge—$750,000 in taxpayers' costs have been racked up in the pursuit of this matter and so at the end of the day and in the interests of a settlement, and the interests of the taxpayers' dollar, a settlement with Mr Ashby was made. That settlement, as agreed between the parties, was public. That settlement and the outcomes of the settlement have been made public and have been out there for the last week. There is still another aspect of the matter that is ensuing between Mr Slipper and Mr Ashby and, as Senator Carr said today in question time, it is not a matter for debate in this chamber. It has never been a matter of debate before the parties because it is a matter before the court and therefore no further comment should be made about it. Senator Brandis: It's only a matter of debate on Lateline! Senator CROSSIN: If we want to go to the integrity of the position of the Attorney-General and if we want to go to the role that the Attorney-General plays when it comes to matters that may or may not potentially go before the courts, then what I need to say to the coalition is: you currently have a shadow minister in the role of the Attorney-General who also needs to look at his behaviour in the last 12 months. As Senator Faulkner said, if you want to sit inside your glasshouse and throw a stone, then you want to make sure it does not come back to hit you in the head. This is a shadow Attorney-General who on 25 August last year according to the Daily Telegraph, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian, picked up the phone to his mate in New South Wales and said that he was going to write a letter because he had some information that ought to be used in the case with the member for Dobell. So last year we had Senator Brandis seeking to influence independent investigations by the New South Wales Police, by the New South Wales DPP. Senator Brandis: There are no proceedings underway! Senator CROSSIN: He picked up the phone to his mate, the New South Wales Attorney-General, and said, 'I am going to write the New South Wales Police minister a letter. And not only that, I have actually got documents that you might be interested in. Not only am I not going to get involved in this, I am actually going to furnish evidence and you might want to have a look at it.' And so on one hand you cannot stand here and condemn Nicola Roxon for being involved in settling a case, which is the right and proper role to undertake when the Commonwealth is before the courts, while you, as a shadow Attorney-General with the potential to be an Attorney-General, hand over documents, encouraging your mates— Senator Brandis: No, handing documents to the police. Senator CROSSIN: your Liberal mates in New South Wales, to get involved in a case that was due to go before the courts. That is the peak of hypocrisy, Senator Brandis.