Chris Ellison (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice and Customs) Share this | Hansard source

It is clearly in the letter. In relation to estimates committees, which are at the core of Senate scrutiny of the government of the day, we are proposing an increase of scrutiny. But, of course, that is not something that the opposition wants to dwell on. In fact, what we need to look at with the opposition’s record is that, when we had the reference committees, which were set up to deal with issues that had to be looked at and that were important and were regarded as such by the Senate, the opposition and minor parties used their numbers to send legislation to reference committees, and that was not what was designed by the system of legislation and reference committees.

What we have seen is that the opposition, when it wanted to use its numbers, perverted a Senate system by sending legislation to reference committees when in fact we had legislation committees set up to deal with that legislation. Indeed, I can point to a number of examples. In 1998 we had aspects of the new tax system bill sent to a references committee. In 2002 we had the Family and Community Services Legislation Amendment Bill 2002 sent to a references committee when it should have gone to a legislation committee. It was equally so with the portfolios of Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, and Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade. We have other examples. Indeed, there are numerous examples. In the Senate Legal and Constitutional References Committee we had, over a period of four years, the migration legislation amendment bill—a bill sent to a references committee. When we look at the opposition’s track record—