Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank those senators in the Greens party and the Independent, Senator Xenophon, and all of my colleagues in the coalition who stayed up for hours and hours ensuring that this was going to be carried, led by the Special Minister of State, Senator Mathias Cormann, whose leadership on this issue showed, as usual, his uncanny combination of intellect, determination and energy. Senator Cormann has served the nation and his state well. We should never forget that section 7 of the Constitution says that senators will be directly elected by the people of each state. This ensures that they will indeed be directly elected by the people of each state, because the people voting will determine precisely where their preferences go.

This is a great day for democracy. I thank the senators for their perseverance in supporting these changes and I thank my colleagues here in the House of Representatives who stayed back and stayed up late so that we could deal with these amendments as they are returned to the House. I commend the amendments to the House.

Honourable members interjecting—

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