Alan Ferguson (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have heard some rambling speeches from Senator Brown in my time, but that one just about takes the cake. That comes from a senator who, to the best of my knowledge, hardly ever attends committees. He is scarcely aware of what takes place in the committees on a day-by-day basis—whether it be estimates committees, references committees or legislation committees. I do not recollect ever attending a committee hearing with Senator Brown.

Senator Brown talked about proper democratic process. I would have thought that proper democratic process usually means that those who have a majority hold sway. The government is formed by those who have the majority; that is what a proper democratic process is. In this case, the proper democratic will of the people of Australia is reflected in the numbers currently in the Senate, and that is the proper democratic process. Senator Brown is very keen to talk about democracy. This is democracy at work.

When Senator Brown was talking about the report of the Procedure Committee, he was wrong about subcommittees. There cannot be a subcommittee consisting of only government senators. If you read the report and the standing orders carefully, you will find that there must be at least one opposition and one government member present, even on a subcommittee.

One of the other issues that Senator Brown raised was government senators ‘controlling’ the outcome of committee reports. In previous parliaments we have had situations where the outcome is controlled not by the majority of people in this place but by a minority. If that is democracy, it is a very strange view of democracy. In fact, we had references committees where there were three Labor senators and a Labor chair, and the Labor Party on its own could control the outcome of a references committee report. The chair had a casting vote; the government, with a majority of members in this place, had two members on those committees and minor parties had one. So, in fact, rather than a democratic process where the majority controlled the outcome, in the case of references committees we had a case where three Labor senators—a minority of people in this place—could control the outcome of a report, not even taking into account the wishes of the minor parties or government members, if they so desired. What we are talking about today is putting in place the proper democratic process.

The proposed make-up of the new committee system reflects the numbers in this place. The changes that were made to the committee system in 1994, in my early days in the Senate, reflected—