Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I start by agreeing with your comment, Mr President, and I encourage senators—without sounding too pompous—to learn the basics of how procedure works in this place. This is a government motion and, if you want to debate it, you deny formality and it comes up under order of government business notice of motion No. 2, part 9, on the red. You could have spoken as long as you wanted and not had the rest of us sitting here in what is supposed to be the formal business. Perhaps there should be a short tutorial for members of the opposition to figure out how procedure works in this place.

The amendment before us, nonetheless, is supported by the Democrats, despite all the unnecessary flurry around it. Indeed, it would be better for the amendment and the substantive motion that the debate were conducted in a way that recognised that there is strong multiparty support for what is being put forward here, rather than drawing attention to the one per cent where there is disagreement. Local government is terribly under-recognised. The Democrats have long held a view that we should be strengthening local government, building up to regional government, and, quite frankly, looking for opportunities to abolish states altogether. I think that the latest election in my home state of Queensland has done little other than to prove that we could do without states altogether. We would all be better off probably once we strengthened—