Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I appreciate the love and response from Senator Abetz. I am not so sure that we would go kissing with each other, mate, but I appreciate the loving feeling. The real problem is that I wear glasses and Senator Xenophon does not, so at 20 paces I may not be able to shoot that straight! The issue at hand is: do we have the right emissions trading scheme for this country? For the next decade, the emissions trading scheme will be the biggest reform we have had in this country and it will affect every single Australian—yet we will not have each political party or interest across the Senate being represented on the select committee. I take up the Greens on their statement that you can be a participating member. Maybe the Greens want to give up their spot around the table and become a participating member and allow Senator Xenophon and me to participate as full members of the committee. Maybe that could be a way of solving it for me. If they think participating members are that valuable, then they can go down that track. I appeal to the chamber: this is an absolutely key piece of legislation that will affect every single Australian, not just for this year and next year but for the next decade, and we need to get it right. You need to make sure you have all the views across the chamber and that they are able to be expressed by full members of this particular committee. As senators are going to vote on this issue, I appeal to them to give that full consideration.