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

This motion is for an exemption from the cut-off order of a number of bills which the government knows ought to have been brought into this place in time for a proper discussion by the Senate, informed by the people of Australia. That means having the ability under the standing orders of the Senate to have them adequately examined—to have them go to a Senate inquiry, to have the Senate inquiry go to the Australian people, to have that inquiry report back to the Senate and for there then to be informed debate and decision making.

This motion firstly removes from that proper process the APEC Public Holiday Bill 2007. APEC is coming up next month, and the government may well be able to argue that that is something we can deal with expeditiously. But then we have the five bills relating to the Northern Territory—500 pages of complex legislation which this government has, in the pre-election period of 2007, brought into the parliament and, by dint of its numbers, shoved through the House of Representatives in one day. And the intention is to do the same in the Senate.

I have never seen such an abrogation of the role of this Senate in the 11 years I have been here, and I do not think there has been such an abrogation of the proper role of this Senate and an overriding of it by this or any government for many decades. This is complex legislation which is not just about the welfare, future and wellbeing of the 40,000 Indigenous people in the Northern Territory affected but about the nature of this country itself. Yesterday we saw Indigenous representatives from the Northern Territory in this parliament being hectored by a member of this Senate as they tried to present to us, through the media, their huge concern about this legislation.

Let us make no mistake about this: there is a deep-seated feeling within Indigenous communities that, while action is required to help and where social parameters show that the Indigenous community is in great need of assistance, that must come with consultation and with the assistance of the Indigenous community, which this government has refused over the last 10 years. The Howard government has turned its back on the Indigenous people of Australia over the last 10 years. Now, we have 500 pages of legislation being brought in here, and the government says, ‘We will suspend standing orders to ram it through the Senate.’ That is what is happening here. It is saying: ‘We will suspend standing orders. We will override them by dint of numbers.’

This is government by the executive and parliament being sidelined on one of the most important issues. This legislation goes to the core of what this nation is: how we relate to first Australians and whether we accord them the honour they should have—and that is equality as citizens.