paddyB,
If government employees down under are like those in the States you often get a resposne from an uninformed individual who "thinks" they have the correct answer or your call to them interrupted a "text messaging" session they were having and jsut wanted to blow you off so tehy could get back to doing something they are not paid to do.

My suggest to CYA is contact them one again and get the response from them in writing, pass on to your companies management and keep a copy in your personal file.

It seems to me Austrialia is much more progressive than the response you received.