Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Well, actually, Senator Collins makes a good point. The point here, though, is when we have a single senator who is a member of a party—so she's not elected as an Independent; there is a party—how does the Senate appropriately reflect the will of the Senate, bearing in mind that the best available evidence is that that position will be filled by a member of the same party? We should have turned our minds to that before Senator Lambie left. Our view was, and I think there was some discussions with others, that the best way to try to deal with it was for Senator Lambie to indicate the position of her party on various matters. Frankly, some of the disdainful remarks from the Manager of Government Business—