Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

The Democrats support the Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Democratic Plebiscites) Bill 2007. As the very name of our party indicates, democracy is our core business and legislation that increases the prospect of direct democracy for the people is something that we support. That has been a longstanding and, indeed, founding principle of the Democrats. I think this is an example—in fact, it is a perfect case study—of where people need to look at what legislation actually does first and foremost in determining a position, regardless of what the motivation is for the legislation. The motivation behind the legislation coming forward may be cynical, hypocritical, breathtakingly dishonest and as misleading as possible. This is probably a good case study and example of that. It is hard to think of a more cynical, hypocritical piece of legislation, but nonetheless the practical application is a positive—