Senator CONROY (Victoria—Leader of the Government in the Senate, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Digital Productivity) (14:19): Faced with the opportunity—clearly sometime on Friday, as it was in Saturday's paper—Mr Morrison had the chance to endorse the Howard government policy agenda. Faced with that, he refused to outline how the policy would be implemented, except to say it would not be—a direct contradiction— Senator Scullion: Mr President, I have a point of order on relevance. My question was very clear and was not particularly wide ranging. I simply asked: does the government still stand by its support for the decision that led to the catastrophic outcome of a 1,000-fold increase in the amount of boats arriving? I wonder if you could draw his attention to the question, Mr President. The PRESIDENT: Order! The minister has been talking for only 28 seconds. The minister still has one minute 32 seconds. I am listening closely to the minister's answer, and I draw the minister's attention to the question. Senator CONROY: Thank you, Mr President. I can understand why the questioner just completely reworded his question on his feet to avoid mentioning the Howard government policies in his point of order. What we know about the Howard government policies is that the former Defence Chief Admiral Chris Barrie said turning back boats is not fair to the Navy and will mean asylum seekers will simply sink the boats. We stand by our policy agenda here. We stand by the expert panel on asylum seekers that reported on 13 August and put forward a range of measures. Senator Scullion cannot airbrush out of his question his reference to Mr Howard's policies, because what did Defence Force Chief Admiral Barrie say? Opposition senators interjecting— Senator CONROY: 'You can imagine that the opposition in government might be able to secure an arrangement with Indonesia.' What did Mr Barrie say? 'It's filthy, dirty work for the Navy.' Opposition senators interjecting— Senator CONROY: Of course it is traditional. He went on to say, 'The engines had to be rebuilt because they were destroyed as soon as the boats sighted one of our vessels.' He said, 'You put all that into the equation and you ask yourself: what are asylum seeker boats going to do if this is the policy'—a return to the Howard government policy, as championed by those opposite—'when they sight one of our vessels on the high seas?' (Time expired)