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

There is more braying from opposite, Acting Deputy President. The Australian people can give information to the democratic system—and, as Ralph Nader, when he visited this country back in 1980, said to me: ‘Information is the currency of democracy. It is the gold of democracy.’ This move means that the government will be able to restrict who comes before committees. It will be able to restrict what information the committees get. It will be able to restrict where those committees go, because we travel more and more outside Canberra—and that is a good thing. We go to the people and do not force them to try to get here. I am sorry, Acting Deputy President, that Senator Abetz looks so miserable about that.