Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

It is interesting that Senator Macdonald is piping up now because it is quite ironic that here we are debating legislation tonight which is actually designed to save the taxpayer money and the filibustering diatribes and waffle we have heard coming out of Senator Macdonald are likely to have cost us a couple of hundred thousand dollars in taxpayer funds.

I foreshadow that I will be moving amendment 8074 standing in my name. This amendment, if it were successful, would be an indication from the Senate that we collectively believe that members of parliament who have misused their expenses should pay back four times the amount that was incorrectly paid to them. This is about giving a bit of teeth and a bit of a stick to this legislation because the Australian Greens genuinely believe that is what the Australian people would like to see. Ultimately, moves such as the ones we are debating tonight—even though we have been very clear that we do not think they go far enough—we hope will go some way towards restoring a modicum of confidence in politicians from the Australian community.