Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is not an issue which I have been at all involved in. I just happened to be listening to Senator Lightfoot deliver what I thought was a very reasoned speech and I imagined that Senator Brown would get up and apologise to the Senate for his failings. I think what Senator Brown’s speech just showed is how the rules are made for everyone else but not for him. I find there is hypocrisy in the actions that people like Senator Brown take. He is always so pious, always so pure, the conscience of the parliament and the Senate, always berating everyone else for actions said to be a little untoward. (Extension of time granted) I just wanted to point out to the Senate, and anyone who might be listening to this, how we always get these lectures from Senator Brown telling the rest of us how we should behave and how the parliament should operate, but when it comes to Senator Brown complying with the rules, not only does he not comply but he will not even apologise to the Senate for his indiscretions.

The subject of Senator Brown’s discussion just now was a justification of yet another one of the stunts that he involves himself in when it comes to the Tasmanian forests. Of course, any of us who understand the issue of Tasmanian forests look at it in a democratic way. We think that the people of Tasmania are the ones who should make the decision on this, and the people of Tasmania quite clearly gave their ruling at the last federal election when the Liberal Party, which supports sustainable forestry in Tasmania, won two seats and an extra senator. If that is not an indication to Senator Brown and anyone else of the support of the Tasmanian people for the very sustainable and cautiously managed approach that the federal government, and indeed the state Labor government, take to the management of the Tasmanian forests then I am not sure what is.

I will finish my remarks by saying, again, that the piousness, the lecturing and the moral consciousness of the parliament that Senator Brown so often exudes in this chamber is shown to be nothing more than a bit of rank theatre from Senator Brown because, when the rules are made, Senator Brown seems to think that he is able to ignore them and have special dispensation.