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

by leave—The government has control of the Senate, but it does not have control of itself. That is the problem tonight. Senator Parry said a minister and an ex-minister left the chamber—I would say in a mighty hurry—and found themselves a minute or so away from the chamber with a minute to get back here and did not make it. Nobody else missed that deadline; everybody else listened to the proceedings that were afoot. But these two senior members of the government left and therefore the government lost its essential control of the Senate. It is very sloppy. It is embarrassing for the government. As we have just heard, it will delay the proceedings of the Senate inevitably in a week in which the government has used its numbers to have us sitting late—that is what we are doing here tonight—and to have us sit possibly even later on Thursday night.

The only thing I would say to the government is: get your act in order. This is an important year. We are headed for an election and you need to be in control of what your members are doing, particularly ministers. If you cannot do it on a simple thing like getting members in here for a vote, which everybody else was here for, then there is something seriously amiss within the ranks. Have a good look at what is going on there and see if you can rectify it, and we would all be better off. With that, I add that the Greens will be granting leave for a recommittal of the third reading as well.