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

Yes. I noticed some braying opposite, but it does not affect the fact that the people who sit in those chairs are going to know exactly to where their first allegiance is: not to the people of Australia but to the prime ministerial office—and watch out if they do not get the signal. I do not use any of those words without forethought and without meaning them. We will see. People have a good memory about this and a good sense of fairness. They do not and will not like this move by the government and this breach of the promise by the Prime Minister that he would be modest, that he would not be intoxicated and that he would be humble about the use of the Senate. There is nothing humble about the sledgehammer that is being taken to the Senate’s noble committee system, and it is—