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

Of course it is not a point of order. That is a correct ruling. You cannot abandon kids in this country, Senator Heffernan—through you, Mr Acting Deputy President—with no right to get a tertiary education. What would the general populus think if we were to bring in a law here which said that children are banned from getting a tertiary education? They might do it in Iran. You might hear the Taliban saying that about women. But you do not expect it to happen in this great democracy of ours.

And then we get to this bumptious, fatuous approach by the Exclusive Brethren, parroted here today by Senator Abetz, which says, ‘All the constitution is at stake.’ Let me read the whole of section 116 of the Constitution. It says:

The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.

Of course not. You get into trouble when you have a secretive religious organisation which will not put its hand up and say that it is making massive donations to the political firmament and not declaring them.