Madam Speaker, the member opposite raises a point which is raised in the House from time to time. Members are quite appropriately sensitive to the parliamentary traditions and the rules that we follow in particular with respect to impending legislation.
In this case there is an allegation that someone outside the House had knowledge of impending legislation. Of course that is not a surprise or a secret to anyone because this legislation had been speculated on frequently over the last few weeks. In fact, the government did quite a bit of consultation with citizens on the bill. Notice of the bill being introduced in parliament was tabled in the House.
It is worth noting that nowhere is there a suggestion here that the individual referred to had a copy of the bill. It is clear that the individual would have had some knowledge of some elements of the bill as did members of parliament around the House.
Quite frequently the press is able to put together enough information about impending legislation to write about it before the bill is actually introduced. That is one of the things that happened in this case.
I would just note that the government does consult with citizens and groups. Ministers do it, ministries do it and members of parliament do it. Consequently members of the public do have knowledge of elements of impending legislation. I suggest that is what has happened here.
I would also point out that it is not the government, the minister or the ministry which has prepared the briefing or publicly sent a letter attempting to analyse the bill. It was a citizen. I hope there is no fault alleged in relation to the minister here.
In any event I make those comments for the record and hope that they will assist the Chair.