Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Brown claims that we are in on some sort of arrangement. I have both the whip and the relevant minister here and they do not seem to know anything about it. Perhaps, Senator Brown, in doing a deal with the Liberal Party on this motion you forgot to include us in such arrangements. In any event, nothing turns on it.

Senator Brown in introducing this motion said he did it with some gravity. Quite frankly, I do not think he is serious and I do not think the Australian public will think he is serious. A censure is a very serious matter. It is something that has not been undertaken lightly in this chamber before. It usually has been treated very seriously by all senators and very seriously by the government of the day. This is not such an occasion. This reeks of an ill-conceived stunt and is not an appropriate vehicle for the sort of debate that Senator Brown wants to have.

As I understand it, because the Liberal and National parties have agreed to support this motion, it will pass, but I suspect it will disappear very quickly as an irrelevancy in the political debate in this country. The motion reflects poorly on the Greens and I think confirms that the Liberal Party are irrelevant and unfit to govern. It seeks to censure the government over delivery of all its climate change related programs, which is an interesting to do in a censure motion. It does not actually specify any of the alleged failings, so we have been censured in general. We have been censured for being the government; we have been censured because the Greens are unhappy with our programs.