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

What appalling arrogance there is in what the minister has just said! He does not believe that a committee should be left to determine for itself whether it is able to work while steering clear of any legal matters that might be before the courts of this country. Since when did governments dictate that to committees? Never. That is a very specious argument, but it points to the government’s arrogance in believing that, since it has the numbers in the Senate, it therefore has the right. Senator Nettle has moved an amendment to, quite properly, have a committee look at a piece of legislation that she and I have brought into the chamber to remove a reference to—and an inherent subservience to—American military commissions under legislation in this country, which does not exist under legislation in any other country on the face of the planet. It is an extraordinary situation that it used to be in legislation in the United States but it effectively does not exist anymore, because it has been found that the American military commissions were illegal under the US Constitution and US law.

The only place left in the world which recognises this kangaroo court is Australia, under legislation brought in by the Howard government and supported by the then Beazley opposition. It is on the statute books in this country. The minister says: ‘Well, it was looked at in 2004 and the committee recommended against it. But we overruled that committee and we went ahead, so we shouldn’t have to look at it now. We had that advice and ignored it.’ The minister is saying, ‘We will not put this to a committee, because either it will agree with us in keeping recognition of the American military commissions on the statutes or, if it doesn’t, we’ll ignore it anyway.’ What extraordinary arrogance there is in that.

The decency of this situation in democratic terms is simply that this piece of legislation should be looked at by the committee. The world has changed. America has found that the military commissions it has set up are no longer legal. President Bush accepts that; he does not recognise them. Prime Minister Howard does recognise them. Here we have his minister saying that the government does not want to remove that recognition. That is an extraordinary thing of itself. It is tied to the sorry tale of the United States now saying they are not winning the war in Iraq. But our Prime Minister will not go along with that. He is the last leader left standing on the face of the planet who cannot face the reality of the gruesome situation which has unfolded in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq.

Let the proper process take place here and let this matter go to a committee. That is what should happen and that is what the government should be supporting if it thinks its position is tenable.

Question put:

That the motion (That the motion (Senator Nettle’s) be agreed to.) be agreed to.