Robert Ray (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The difficulty we have with a motion such as this is that it is an all-encompassing motion of great seriousness. How we could possibly have declared it formal and put it through without debate is beyond me. The Senate has shown a lot of forbearance in having a lot of motions declared formal and voted on without debate. It is an increasing trend—we know that. We are averaging about four divisions a day on these matters. It is not as though the Labor Party, by objecting to Senator Brown’s motion, has been at all spiteful. It has been consistent. The issues raised, and as explained by Senator Brown here today, are serious issues. You cannot just vote on them without debate. As to their urgency, Senator Brown let the cat out of the bag in interjecting on Senator Boswell, when he said that he had a bill coming in here to deal with it. Am I misquoting you?