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

by leave—I would have thought that, instead of the government saying that the Senate ought not have the capacity that the executive has to make announcements or statements on matters as serious as the death penalty in our own region, it would have at least provided us with a report stating what approach had been made to the senior level delegation from the Republic of Vietnam that was in this country just a week ago on this matter of the death penalty—but there has been nothing at all. Instead, the government has indicated that the matter has been relegated to the bilateral talks—that is, buried talks—which takes it off ministerial and prime ministerial agendas. The Senate wants to take the matter more seriously, and it is doing the responsible thing. In fact, it is doing part of the executive’s job for it. But, if the government is indicating that the executive ought to have the sole say on matters to do with foreign relations and that the parliament should stand aside and give the executive that sole say, the Greens 100 per cent disagree.

Question put: