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

Yes, and I will continue to do that. That was a wise ruling, thank you. I might say that I think it is a good practice for people in this place to have their minds on the subject that is being discussed. It is a very important matter, and I do not think it would hurt if Senator Abetz were to apply his mind to it while he is in this chamber.

I go back to the important role that the Senate committee system has in allowing people to express their feelings, their information, their wishes and their fears to this parliament before we make decisions that affect their lives. My colleague Senator Siewert was telling me last night about a couple of Senate committees that have made a difference. For example, people who are home carers were going to be done in by the Welfare to Work requirements which might have taken them out of that caring situation, but a Senate committee picked up on that. It did a great favour not just to the people who are home carers and those being cared for but to all of us by alerting us to a change that was required, and the government subsequently took that up.

There is also the example of the clothing outworkers, who have pretty difficult working situations in the clothing industry and do not have very much backup. Their safeguards under the new industrial relations system are not very good, but they would have been worse if it had not been for the Senate committee system. On and on it goes. The inquiry into the plight of people behind razor wire in this country—women, children, men, families—has no doubt embarrassed the government with its revelations, which came through many other agencies but were gathered together by the Senate committee system. It has made a big difference. In fact, because it keeps us grounded with the Australian people, the Senate committee system is of enormous ethical value to this parliament and to our democracy.

For members of the government and for the Prime Minister to come into the parliament and say that now they have a one-vote majority in the Senate they are going to do away with the multipartisan make-up of the Senate committees and the way they are balanced and replace that with a government dominated system is appalling. It is disgusting. We have to live with that. It will change. Decency and commonsense will come back in, if not after the next election the one after that. The Greens will be campaigning to rescue the Senate from this appalling situation at the next election. That is already striking a chord with people who are giving us feedback.

Let the government stand on its record, and if the government and the bright people at the back of the Prime Minister’s office who cooked this up think that this time next year people will have forgotten about it they are going to be very wrong indeed. The Procedures Committee ought to look very carefully at this. It will be interesting to see whether the Procedures Committee can come up with a well-rounded and unanimous view which is based above all on the democratic values of our committee system not being in the hands of the government party but in the service of all the people of Australia.