Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to put on the record that Senator Bernardi and the Greens very rarely agree on anything, but it is true that Senator Bernardi has been a supporter of the Greens' plan for an audit of parliamentarians' eligibility under section 44 of the Constitution. Of course, that is the Greens preferred pathway to bring an end to the citizenship crisis gripping the parliament. The Australian people deserve certainty about the make-up of their parliament and they deserve a timely resolution to this crisis. However, simply calling parliament off, as this motion proposes, isn't going to deliver that outcome and does look, for all intents and purposes, to be a tactic from Senator Bernardi to derail progress on marriage equality. Of course, the Greens won't stand for that. What we need is an active process of declaration and audit with referrals to the court. That is what will deliver certainty to this parliament. Over the longer term, we do need to address reform of section 44 of the Constitution so it more accurately reflects modern multicultural Australia.