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

The Greens will be supporting this motion and that is because it is a warranted motion for a reference to the Privileges Committee. I find the defence from the Leader of the Opposition in the chamber quite remarkable and, if one were to follow the logic of that defence, there would hardly ever, if ever, be a reference to the Privileges Committee.

The Privileges Committee is there to ultimately defend truth, honesty and integrity in the proceedings of this chamber, the Senate, and its committees. The matter at hand is an investigation into whether or not the proceedings of the Economics Legislation Committee on 19 June were affected by any false or misleading evidence or deception either of senators or of the committee. The opposition itself says that is so. The Leader of the Opposition has said he made a mistake. Senator Abetz not only has said that he was misled but has apologised in this chamber and to the Prime Minister in the public arena for the events that led to him being misled. Yet the opposition claims this is not a matter that the Privileges Committee should look at.

The Leader of the Opposition’s and Senator Abetz’s own testimony in the public and parliamentary arenas can lead us to no other conclusion than that the Privileges Committee should look at the matter. Senator Minchin has just said that Senator Abetz was a victim. If any senator is a victim—that is, of being misled on the way to serious questionings on serious matters in a Senate committee—surely the Privileges Committee should look at that. How can Senator Minchin say that one of his senior colleagues has been a victim of a process which led to him being misled and that that is not a matter that should be looked at by the Privileges Committee? You have to remember that, as Senator Evans told the chamber just a while ago, this led to the Leader of the Opposition calling for the resignation of the Prime Minister and the Treasurer of this nation. Of course these matters are serious. They strike right at the heart of the integrity—that is, the truth and honesty—that guides deliberations by this Senate, this parliament and its committee system. I have heard no reasoned argument on the facts put by the opposition and its leaders themselves that would countermand these matters being referred to the Privileges Committee.

The second thing is that Senator Minchin has said that this is an attempt by the Labor Party to get Senator Abetz. That is an affront to the Privileges Committee itself. I yesterday moved that a crossbench member be included in the Privileges Committee. The membership of the Privileges Committee has been made up of members of the government and the opposition. The argument we are hearing today is a very strong one that that committee should be properly representative of the make-up of this chamber. It should have a representative from the crossbench on it. The whole division between the government and the opposition points to that necessity. Indeed, it is from the crossbench that one motion we are dealing with today has come. I know that all members of the crossbench have been seriously considering these matters and, indeed, this reference. Whether or not these matters go to the Privileges Committee will be determined by the crossbench. On that matter the government has said it is not going to support Senator Fielding’s motion. The opposition has said it is not going to support the government’s motion.

One looks at the mathematics of the situation in here. For this reference to proceed it will require that the crossbench—as a whole entity—supports the government motion. I point that out before the votes are taken to all my colleagues on the crossbench. It is simply a matter that, if one of us demurs, the reference will not go ahead. That would be illogical. Indeed, it would be all the more illogical given that Senator Fielding, Senator Xenophon and the Greens have all been part of a process of saying, ‘Well, the matter ought to go to the Privileges Committee.’ If it does not go in the exact form that we want then we will have to accept that. Above all, this matter should and must in my books go to the Privileges Committee.

The Privileges Committee—notwithstanding that it is not properly representative of the modern Senate and the make-up of the modern Senate—has in my 13 years experience in this place acted with great honour. Time and again the findings of the Privileges Committee have not been partisan. The inquiries have not been witch-hunts; they have never strayed.