Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

We have good men and women who put themselves up for election to this important level of government in this country—that is, local government. This has significant effects on the lives of ordinary Australians. And we have the Premier of Queensland trampling all over the rights of those people to express a view as to whether their councils should disappear or not. It seems to me a fundamental matter of democratic principle that if a tier of government is effectively to disappear then the people affected should have a say in that matter. It is the people of Queensland who have elected this tier of government. I draw a distinction here: it is a tier of government that we are discussing.

To go to Senator Ray’s interjection, it is my recollection that, in relation to the actions of the Victorian government, the Hawke or Keating government was in power at the time; it was not the coalition government that was in power federally. May I say that it would be my view that any past or future Liberal government should give the people in their state a say in whether or not their councils are to disappear. To that extent, in the past, when Mr Hawke or Mr Keating was in power, Premier Kennett should have been given his constituents a right to have a say in whether the councils in Victoria were merged or disappeared.

So far as Senator Allison’s question about ramming the legislation on the Northern Territory intervention through the parliament goes, I would point out to Senator Allison that the bill has now been in this chamber for three days. I think the debate is up to some 15 hours. It is rapidly approaching the point at which it becomes one of the most exhaustively-debated bills in the history of the Senate. I am advised that only 29 bills in 106 years of the Senate have been debated for over 20 hours, and this one is rapidly approaching that 20 hours. We are happy for this debate to go for as long as the minor parties wish it to go. If you want to stay here till Saturday night, we will stay here till Saturday night to debate this bill. So I would hope that the minor parties will not seek deliberately to filibuster on this important bill.

To the extent that the minor parties have legitimate and serious questions for the minister handling the bill, we invite them to put them. But we would caution them against unnecessarily filibustering on this bill. We are happy for this very significant legislation to be properly tested in this place. I am surprised that Senator Allison is complaining about the methodology. The Liberal Party of Australia and the National Party of Australia do stand for democratic principles and democratic rights. We have been the great defenders of the Senate; it is those opposite who have had it in their party platform for some 60 years that they will abolish the Senate. So we are the great defenders of democracy and of this chamber, and we stand by our principles. (Time expired)