Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I agree that there is no point of order. This is a total failure by the government, and the minister compounds it by saying that a cabinet meeting takes precedence over the sitting of this Senate. That is a constitutional impertinence by this government: that it cannot have its cabinet meetings at proper times without disrupting the proper debate in this parliament. This minister and this government failed this afternoon. It failed this nation, it failed the Indigenous people and it failed this nation’s heritage because it did not care about that. It was absent when it should have been here for the vote. What a failure by this government. What an indignity for the government. But that is not what matters—it is the slight on Indigenous Australia and its cultural heritage that the government not only did not care enough to be here to vote but also did not care enough to vote for this motion. Now it wants to vote down the motion to protect this area in the future.