Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Unanimous! The people on that committee—apart from coalition, Green and Senator Xenophon—were Senator John Faulkner, Mr Gary Gray, Senator Tillem, Mr Alan Griffin and one or two others as well. They participated in this over a space of—from memory—four or five weeks. We went all across Australia. We looked at everything and we inquired of everybody. We had the best evidence—from the most senior academics to the person off the street. We looked at this and looked at this and looked at this. How can anyone say we have not had a debate on this?

I understand that, since the bill has come into this chamber, we have already had in excess of 20 hours of debate, and yet we hear from Senator Collins that this is being rammed through without discussion. Of course, I remember the dying days of the Labor government, when 134 bills were put through this chamber by the Labor government without so much as one word being spoken on them—not one word! On 134 different occasions debate was curtailed. Twenty hours on any piece of legislation is a long time in anyone's language.

Not only have we had 20 hours of debate so far, but we have had a debate in the other place as well. The committee was recalled to look specifically at this legislation. The committee at the time thoroughly investigated. In fact, the committee was so thorough that it said to the government: 'We don't quite like your bill. We don't think it's gone far enough. We the committee recommend there should be an addition to it.' Fortuitously, the government have accepted the recommendation of that committee. That is how thoroughly the committee looked into it. We had answers from anybody we wanted them from. We had all of the experts.

Senator Polley interjecting—

Senator Polley, you could have been there too, had you been interested. I am not on the committee, but under the rules we have in this place senators can put themselves onto these joint committees as participating members. That is what I did. I had all the rights and responsibilities of every member. I asked all the questions I wanted to. You were not there, I do not think, Senator Polley.