Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

Yes I can. I can inform Senator Macdonald and fellow senators that the former Clerk of the Senate, the late Harry Evans, cautioned against establishing a similar inquiry in 1996. Mr Evans highlighted the 'two-way-street' aspect of comity between parliaments when he said:

There is built into it an element of the Biblical golden rule of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Mr Evans warned of the possibility of retaliatory inquiries—if the Senate can conduct an inquiry into a state government, what will stop a state government from doing the same to the Commonwealth?

Professor Anne Twomey, a constitutional law expert, has said:

There's this thing called the Melbourne Corporation doctrine, which basically says the commonwealth can't interfere in the capacity of the state to govern …

If this committee proceeds, the Senate will have opened a Pandora's box and those opposite will bear the consequences. (Time expired)