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

by leave—I would briefly like to indicate the Democrats concurrence, not surprisingly, with what Senator Bob Brown has just said. I support his suggestion that people look closely at the Democrats bill. I should say for the record, to put the Democrats bill in wider context, that it is actually an issue that was first raised as long ago as 1981 by former Democrat Senator Colin Mason from New South Wales, and it has been raised many, many times since. So it is an issue that has been on the Senate’s agenda for a little while. Whilst the world has changed since then, as Senator Faulkner said, I think that is more reason than ever to examine the issue, as Senator Brown suggested.