Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

that should be a source of national pride. That should not be the subject of the sort of snide contribution that we just saw.

The problem with this proposition, apart from the fact that it doesn't actually propose a genuine inquiry, that the outcome it seeks is not legally possible and, of course, the small question of fairness for native title claimants, is in its origins. I heard Senator Cash's contribution. I listened very carefully to her falling over herself to almost agree with Senator Hanson's proposal. Senator Hanson was expelled from the Liberal Party in 1996; I'm not sure it'd happen now. I think that, in some elements of the thinking that goes on here, she fits right in. What's happened in the extremist takeover of the backbench of the Liberal Party—the extremist takeover of what passes for an opposition in this place—is, of course, that it has opened the doors to the kinds of propositions—