Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Before I talk about what I wanted to talk about, I will just say that what the previous speaker said is absolutely ridiculous. I'm no big punter for anybody around here, but I think the Prime Minister has got more responsibility than anyone ever presumed a prime minister would have. He's dealing with what is probably one of the greatest crises of our time, and I think that, for the cards he's been dealt, he's doing a pretty good job.

But the issue that I think is really important is that we should go the full hog in making sure this parliament has capacity for people to effect their vote from outside of it. If we believe in decentralisation then we believe in remote voting. I said this in my maiden speech in the other place, when the SARS epidemic was going around. This is not the first time we've had to deal with a pandemic. Obviously this one is vastly more extensive. But we don't want to jump completely in the water with respect to how we can actually vote. If I can move millions of dollars—if I had it—from one account to another, surely I can press 'yes' or 'no' on a keyboard from Tamworth. We can't have a parliament with this sort of set-up, with a few people in here and other people watching but not allowed to vote. It's just clumsy. On both sides, we have got to say, 'Let's do this properly.' I know the reason we don't do it that way is that we want the whips to have control of the vote. That's why we live in this twilight zone. Let's do it properly—let's make it happen and show Australia how we can be smarter about it.

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