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

It is not true, says the senator opposite—and he will have his opportunity to speak. I say it is true. The government would say that they would not do that. I would say that the very fact that this proposal has been brought forward means not only that they are capable of it but that they will: protecting themselves will lead to them doing just that. The government have moved towards sidelining the Senate out of our democratic system. Like Senator Murray, whose figures I am about to use, the Greens have been looking at that. When it comes to declarations of urgency—that is, gagging or guillotining of debate in this place—there were none in the year 2003-04 and five in the following year. But in this year 2005-06 it has happened 26 times.

When it comes to the order for production of documents—that is, to get information out of government ministers—there were 33 such orders by the Senate in 2003-04, and those 33 were agreed to by the Senate. There were 25 sought and 25 agreed to in the election year 2004-05. Eleven have been sought in 2005-06 but only one has been agreed to. Suddenly the government was blocking proposals for the order of production of documents. As you know, Acting Deputy President, democracy is as good as the information that is supplied to it and, as the government knows, the best way to nobble the Senate or indeed the right of the electorate to take part in the democratic process is to remove the oxygen of information from that domain. If you look at references to the references committees which were blocked by a vote in this place, you see that two years ago there were only three and the year after that, the election year, there were seven. But in this year 2005-06 that number has suddenly risen to 16. That was the government using its majority.

If you look at non-government amendments to bills coming from the Greens, the Labor opposition, the Democrats and other members, there were 456 agreed to in 2003-04. There were 120 agreed to in 2004-05, part of which was after the government gained the majority here, although it had not given effect to it at that time. But, in the year 2005-06, that number suddenly plummeted to three—almost nothing at all. The facts speak for themselves. The government has decided—and I am talking here about the executive, not the parliament or the party room—