Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I will not prolong this debate, because I know that we will lose the vote when it comes, but I just want to make the point here—and I thank Senator Stephens for her information—that what I am moving here on behalf of the Greens is to legislate an outcome. She says, ‘The government is moving to improve the transparency and the information that is coming out.’ I always think it is a good practice to legislate it. The view that the government will do it anyway is one that I might subscribe to—I don’t know; I do not know if I ever will know—if I were in government. But I am a parliamentarian and I think the parliament has a right to expect through legislation that it will get these outcomes. If the government has the intent to provide for these outcomes anyway, it should not have any trouble with the amendments. It is a pretty simple rule, if you ask me.