Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I should indicate that I have had to speak many times in response to Senator Murray’s amendments of this ilk. I would dearly love to give you a win on one of these before you leave, Senator Murray, but I think this is probably the least appropriate of all of the processes that you could have sought to amend. We have taken this process from a Liberal Party donor list and we have turned it into a process by which a list of names is put together by a range of people who would have some understanding of the needs of the Reserve Bank board and that list is then put forward. So, out of all of the times when I know you have beaten your head against the brick wall to try to get, in your view, a merits based approach, this one is probably the unkindest because we have actually substantially improved the process. So, as much as I would love to give you one victory—and I am sure, if you get a chance, you will tell me how many times you have moved this amendment—we unfortunately will not be supporting this amendment. But I do hope that you are able to acknowledge that we have substantially improved the selection process for the Reserve Bank.