Michael Forshaw (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What an amazing contribution from Senator Joyce on this matter of public importance. He has just put forward in the Senate, which is being broadcast at the moment, the proposition that there is a huge conspiracy by the Rudd government to censor debate in this country. He has just acknowledged that proposition. That claim is contained in the matter of public importance today: ‘The Rudd government’s censorship of the CSIRO.’  That claim only has to be stated by Senator Joyce to be refuted. It really does not deserve an argument or a debate. If there is one person in this country and in this parliament who has not drawn breath or shut up for months and months on the issue of climate change, the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme or the emissions trading scheme, it is Senator Joyce himself. He is now claiming that the Rudd government is censoring him and everybody else. What a ridiculous proposition to advance.

If you want to see some examples of censorship by government in the recent history of this country, go back and have a look at what happened during the ‘children overboard’ inquiry when ministerial advisers, in a special unit established by the then Prime Minister John Howard, were intimately involved—