Yes, but that interchange was a return to the usual Laborial agenda for estimates. The Coalition wants to embarrass the Labor government by suggesting the Attorney-General committed an offence under reg 309A by failing to turn off his phone when instructed by a crew member. Meanwhile, all the Labor spies are looking for Coalition members doing the same. Their primary concern is political point-scoring, not safety.
(As an aside, I note obligations under 309A depend on one of our favourite counter-intuitive terms: “flight time”. Even on the broadest interpretation of that term, there is no obligation to comply with the operator’s/PIC’s directions to the extent they purport to apply before an aircraft starts taxiing under its own power, or after it comes to a halt at the gate. So, for example, the PIC cannot give a binding direction, under 309A, that a person turn of her mobile phone when the aircraft is being pushed-back, or that a person leave her mobile phone off while disembarking the aircraft and walking across the tarmac.)