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

I'm terribly sorry, Madam Acting Deputy President, but there is no need to clarify a well-known expression about cockroaches scuttling away when you turn on the lights. It is a common turn of phrase within the Australian parlance, and I have never known it to be associated as Senator Whish-Wilson in his frivolous point of order seeks to assert. But, let's be very clear: did they deny in that point of order that the only reason the Gillard government was able to be in existence was that Senator Bob Brown and the Australian Greens joined them to allow them to then commit those crimes, about which Senator Steele-John regaled the Senate? If we go right up the chain of command and demand that all the parliamentarians responsible be held responsible, it would mean that Senator Bob Brown would be responsible as well and would need to be dealt with. Of course, that is where, when you take the Greens' logic to its proper extent, you find that their arguments fall apart. They are internally inconsistent.

All that said, what the government has sought to do and has done very responsibility is to ensure that this credible information is dealt with in a proper manner through the rule of law, through the proper system, that it be investigated and ascertained, and then we can determine whether or not men and women ought be charged and, if so, with what charge—and the consequences that flow. This is not for this chamber to determine. We have the rule of law in this country for a very good reason. We do seek to ensure that it's not parliamentarians who determine who gets charged or who gets convicted. That is for a separate arm of our government, the judicial system, to determine. What I simply say to Senator Steele-John and others in this place is be very, very careful what you wish for, because one day, as you seek to use the parliament to condemn people, others in this parliament may then use it as well. It is a dangerous precedent which should be rejected.