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

I should take that interjection, Senator Evans; they do appoint their own upper house people, but I do not think we are moving to do that. The other point that Senator Ray made was that Senate committees in this place have always had a very good reputation for the work they do. I believe that there will be even better work done, because one of the problems that has existed in the past 12 months, while this government has had a majority in the Senate, is that it has not allowed references to go to reference committees simply because it knows that the report will be written by the opposition from a minority position.

There are a number of senators on this side who spoke at length in our own discussions as to what should take place. We believe, and those who can remember will know, that prior to the change of the committee system in 1994 there were some outstanding issues dealt with by committees, including the legislative and general purpose committee where the government had a majority. Senators worked very hard, and because the government had a majority they were not afraid to accept a reference from this place or from the committee itself that might to some people look very controversial. Because the report would not be controlled by the opposition or a minority, prior to 1994 they allowed those controversial references to go to committees. Many members in our discussions in our party room are of the view that we should be able to look into controversial issues with the new structure of the Senate committees in the knowledge that the report will not be controlled by a minority opposition viewpoint. Of course they can still put a minority report in, as we did in the earlier days, prior to 1994. There was more consensus and there were more unanimous reports, I think, in those days than in recent times, simply because of the political nature of many of the references where, with the government not having the numbers, it cannot have any say in what is actually put to the references committees.

I commend these changes to the Senate. As I said, there was a good deal of discussion when the model we are putting before the chamber today was dealt with at the Procedure Committee. We recognise that the opposition and the minor parties are opposed to any change at all, but once it was agreed, reflecting the numbers in the Senate, that there would be changes, I think there was very good, amicable cooperation in trying to determine the best outcomes for the government’s proposals to revert to one committee. I commend the recommendations of the Procedure Committee to the Senate and I look forward to the time when the new committee system is put in place. Only after it has been in place for six or 12 months will we be able to judge the effectiveness of these changes. I hope and trust that those changes will be beneficial to our democratic system.