Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I made some remarks on the document last week and I want to put on the record a more complete explanation of my remarks, as they appear to have been taken out of context. Basically, I made some remarks singling out Senator Reynolds because of her conduct throughout the inquiry. I said:

It was totally partisan, totally political and less than objective conduct.

I want to put forward some further and better particulars in respect of that.

By way of background, I have, prior to coming to the Senate, some experience as a chair and some experience as a member of a committee. For example, I spent 16 years as the secretary of a branch committee of management of a reasonably sized union. I spent 10 years as the chair of an investment committee on a reasonably sized superannuation fund. I chaired the complaints and appeals on that superannuation fund. I was a director of the Motor Accident Commission. I chaired the marketing and sponsorship committee. So, when I say something is partisan and purely political, I am coming from a very technical background.

The Senate passed a resolution. I was minding my own business. I knew little or nothing about Nauru. I just knew, anecdotally, that it was an area where superphosphate was mined and had historically been extraordinarily wealthy and had some reasonably good investments in the city of Melbourne. When I came to the first meeting, which was a telephone conference, we had a resolution of the Senate which basically said the composition of the committee—so the office bearers of the committee, the deputy chair and the chair. The resolution was fairly simple: the chair would be a member of the opposition and the deputy chair would be a member of the Australian Greens.

At that very first meeting, it surprised me when the coalition senator present, Senator Reynolds, moved that Senator Bernardi would be the deputy chair. It was contrary to the resolution of the Senate, so it did not cause all that much disquiet or discomfort! But it did pose the question: either Senator Reynolds did not read the resolution or did not understand what the Senate had determined. That is, there would be a committee and there will be a chair and deputy chair from the respective groups. Either she did not read that or—