And we also asked another of the social partner senators about the PM's comments. She explained that she didn't really expect any different from the government, and that the pushback they are receiving from the prime minister isn't surprising either. But despite that, the inquiry process will still continue undaunted:
Elena Smith, Union Senator
"I don't know if we expect that we would have heard from them something different, because when we are investigating matters that, especially governments, that they are maybe involved in, and when I say involved in, they are the ones to put these things forth in terms of bringing it to the legislature, you will get that kind of push back. So I don't think we expected anything differently, in terms of those kinds of comments."
Reporter
"Do you find that he is undermining the process?"
Elena Smith
"Well, people might look at it and say he is the Prime Minister, so people will listen to him. But we have a process we must go through and that process that we are using is one that is legislated, is not that we are just saying we want to do this on our own. We have the authority to do such and the people of this country need to pay attention to these things and understand the reason behind doing these things. This is not just because we want to expose persons and make anybody look bad. This is about being accountable to the people of this country and being transparent in how we do things, especially things that are going to have an impact on our people."
