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

In case Senator Kemp took that personally, it was not meant to apply directly to him in terms of the word ‘law’; the rest may well. And I think that Senator Kemp’s behaviour in flouting the standing orders of this place just a moment ago ought to be noted.

I was referring to Senator Ray’s much better contribution to the debate. In effect, he pointed out that when Labor, the Democrats and others had the numbers in this place during Labor’s period in office it was conceded that a quite remarkable degree of fairness came into the way in which the committees proceeded and, indeed, the way questions were asked in this place and so on. But that is very rapidly being lost now that the government has a majority. We see it expressed in the proposal before the Senate that the government control the Senate committee system. That means control of the outcomes and of the input, including witnesses, length of hearings, place of hearings and all those things which are so important to a committee system, which is ultimately responsible for picking up what the experts and the public have to say about legislation or other matters brought before the parliament, so that we as parliamentarians can be better informed when we make the final decision.

This proposal is not just an affront to the Senate; it is an affront to the Australian people. It is the executive of Prime Minister Howard saying: ‘We will limit the input of the Australian people to that which we will allow. We will control the Senate committee system to ensure that it does not come up with findings that we do not like.’ That is not the hallmark of a healthy democracy. It is more the hubris and the getting carried away with power that comes out of a government that has been in office too long. We will see more of it.

I spoke a lot during the last election campaign about the potential for the government to win the majority in the Senate. Nobody in the press gallery took that up at all, but I was right. We are seeing the result now. I predict that there will be a different vote for the Senate come the election next year. There will be a different vote because the people of Australia do not like this process. I think the government is quite foolish. Sure, for 12 months we will have to put up with the government protecting itself from any discomfort that might come out of an inquiry, anticipating where inquiries might go, heading them off if they are not going to be beneficial to the government and then, of course, writing and publishing the report at the end of the day. That is a totally unsatisfactory system as far as democracy for the Australian people is concerned but, temporarily, it is not unsatisfactory for the government.

But the Australian people are not fools. They are watching how this great house, which was established to look after the rights of states, to review what government is doing and to be a hand on the shoulder of government, is now being abused by the government simply because they have a majority. Australians are very, very keen on seeing the Senate exert itself as a brake on the excesses of government, and the brake has failed. I predict that the Australian people will reapply it at the next election. I think the government are being quite foolish. They are being self-interested, yes, but foolish nevertheless, because self-interest has to have a long-term trajectory. What the government are doing is short term and it will catch up with them.

‘We will be humble,’ said the Prime Minister when it was established that the majority in the Senate had gone to the government after the last election. ‘We will not treat this with hubris.’ But the proposals out before the Senate are self-indulgent; they come out of inflated ego and out of the government putting itself before proper democratic process in this great parliament of this great nation. Isn’t it extraordinary how those people who so often beat their chests, stand in front of the flag and use the national symbols end up pulling the rug from under things which are important to the nation? That is what is happening here today. There is a bit of hubris that has gone like a rocket right from the executive into the Senate. But ultimately the government will reap the whirlwind.

The people of Australia, I can tell the government, do not respond to just flag-waving. They have a great appreciation of and a great fealty to the symbols of this nation but they also recognise when those things are being subverted by people who have been entrusted with power and are abusing that trust. It will be interesting to see what happens after the election. Senator Ray is quite right in saying that so often it is the left side of politics that moves towards fairness—not just in social matters but in democracy—and it is the right side of politics which goes in the opposite direction, away from social fairness and away from democratic fairness as well.