Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a brief personal explanation as I claim to have been misrepresented.

Leave granted.

In today’s Age newspaper, Senator Stott Despoja is quoted in relation to her David Hicks motion from yesterday as saying:

We could have won it. It was lost 32 to 34. If Fielding had voted with us, it would have been a tied vote.

That implies Family First’s vote was the deciding vote, and that is wrong. Even if Family First had voted for the motion, it would still have been defeated. Under section 23 of the Constitution a tied vote in the Senate is resolved in the negative. Senator Stott Despoja knows this very well. She also complains that Family First should have supported her motion because Family First has publicly called for David Hicks to be immediately brought home.