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

On behalf of the Greens, I want to concur with the Leader of the Opposition but go further and say that we do not support the arrangement which effectively means that those senators who speak after the vote is taken will have their contribution to this historic debate downgraded. There is no way that that will not occur. Every senator is elected equal to this place and every senator has an equal right to contribute to this debate. At the end, the debate should go to a vote, not least because of but most because of the historic nature of the move to extend an apology to the stolen generations.

I am very concerned that there is a lack of respect for this chamber in this move by the government. We all have a right as senators to contribute to something as important as this. We know that the procedure tomorrow is being tightly controlled by the government, and we wish the government well. I will be contributing to the congratulations to the government on making this move, but the process in here is not right. It should not be depriving every senator of their contribution to this historic debate. It was simply a matter of the government scheduling the final vote to be taken on Thursday or giving everybody a five-minute contribution. We could have finished it tomorrow afternoon, but the government, in the process it has set out, is taking away from the due respect that every senator has a right to speak in this place. While we support the motion to bring on the matter for debate tomorrow, we do not support that component. I put on the record that we do not support the component which says that those senators who contribute after the vote will effectively be doing so as also-rans.