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

Forgettable, says our fellow senator from Tasmania, but they are both good Tasmanians true. The reasonable thing for the government to do in moving a change which means that we will be sitting tomorrow if the debate on the Northern Territory legislation goes until midnight today is to give an explanation of what the intention is. I heard that on the ABC Senator Abtez flagged the possibility of sitting on Saturday. He ought to be giving information to the Senate, rather than simply flagging to journalists what we might be doing. This legislation is huge. It needs proper scrutiny.

I heard that Senator Abetz indicated that there was filibustering going on in here. That is a direct calumny on the process that has taken place. That is not so. It is patently evident that senators have been contributing very directly to this important debate. The public assertion by Senator Abetz that members of this Senate have been taking time simply to fill in the Senate sitting hours with irrelevancies is quite outrageous. He might be more judicious in the words that he chooses to use outside in a political way to try and defame falsely those in the Senate. There are very serious matters before the Senate and they have been taken seriously by all parties, including the government, in the Senate. That process, as far as the Greens go, will continue.

This is important legislation. The nation’s attention has been drawn to it. This is our opportunity in committee to question the government about it, to elicit more information and to ensure that we are informed before we vote on the various amendments and then on the third reading of the bills. I request that Senator Abetz be a bit more moderate and sensible in the comments that he makes publicly about the process of this very serious debate in this parliament. We can do without the Senate being treated as a political football by the senator. If he were to attend more of the debate about the Northern Territory legislation, he might get to see how serious it is and how good and incisive the debate has been—including the contributions by the minister involved. All parties have been doing this in a mature and sensible way, and the proceedings deserve a better public description than the one Senator Abetz has given.