John Faulkner (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What the Senate is being asked to do this afternoon is suspend its standing orders to debate this motion, general business notice of motion No. 549 which, amongst other things, deals with the behaviour of Senator Heffernan at the time of the passage of the package of clean energy bills yesterday. I would submit that Senator Heffernan and his behaviour are not more important than debate on the Australian Renewable Energy Agency Bill 2011 and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2011, which is a time limited debate, the time expiring at 5.30 this afternoon. Nor do I believe that considering Senator Heffernan or his behaviour in this chamber is more important than debate on the Tobacco Plain Packaging Bill 2011, which is also an order of the day for government business later this afternoon.

There is an iron law of the Senate: never get between Senator Heffernan and a television camera! Never do it. He acknowledges that that is the case. Senator Heffernan has never seen a bad microphone yet! Of course, I do not think it will be news that Senator Heffernan did at the conclusion of the debate yesterday what he tried to do in question time today: take a point of order of no substance at all to see if he could score a little bit of time on the television. The truth is that you will not have to hold the front page, I can assure you, to debate the behaviour of Senator Heffernan trying to get his scone on television. He does it all the time. There is no news in the fact that Senator Heffernan is a narcissist. We know that. There is no news in the fact that Senator Heffernan is egomaniacal. We know that that is the case. There is no news in the fact that self-aggrandisement is what Senator Heffernan is all about. I have in fact been unkind enough at times to suggest he is a little bit barmy about these things. I have said in the past that he is quite bonkers when it comes to this obsession with getting himself in the media, which has involved interrupting people's doorstops and trying to take over a properly convened press conference. It is no different inside the chamber from outside the chamber.

But the issue we are debating here this afternoon is: should the Senate's legislative program be overturned for debate on this motion? It should not. As far as I am concerned, there is no news in Senator Heffernan's quite odd behaviour. I think Senator Heffernan came into this parliament—you can correct me, Senator Heffernan—in late 1996. Is that correct?