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

It is a very apt metaphor, Senator Kemp. The government cannot and will not be able to back off and retain the decency which is expected in a democratically elected parliament like this. We are going to see quite a lot more of that. The Greens will be campaigning over the next 12 months to rescue the Senate. We will be campaigning very strongly to make sure that when Australians go to the ballot box—on 4 August next year or sometime after that—they know that they have the option to take the majority away from the government, which is expressing its majority in such a crude fashion as in the proposed amendments to standing orders that we have before us at the moment.