Kerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Rather, I take issue with Senator Parry’s characterisation of the amendment that he foreshadowed moving, which was to replace paragraph (7) of motion 136 with a duplicate of paragraph (9) of motion 137. He characterised that as a process which would allow people to nominate and allow the minor parties, Senator Fielding and Senator elect Xenophon to nominate. You only have to read the words that he has intruded to know that that does not happen. There is no intention for nominations. This is about the empowering of the opposition chair of these committees to go behind closed doors and do deals with people to get them onside and to use the deputy chair’s position as largesse. Frankly, it cannot be clearer than that. If nominations were intended, as Senator Parry suggested this provision was intended to operate, it would have talked about an election process.

It also says that the opposition chair of these select committees can do this from time to time. What that implies is that they can change their decision. That implies—and I suppose it is contestable, but they will have the numbers on the committee—that the chair can say: ‘I don’t want you to be the deputy chair anymore. I’m going to give it to someone else because you haven’t done what you were told.’ This is an extraordinary proposition, an extraordinary form of drafting, and it has been affirmed by the fact that the same words that are in motion 136 are to be included in motion 137. I do not know if that means that there is a deal between the Liberal Party and the National Party that some of the crumbs on the table that the Liberal Party will control can be handed to the National Party. I do not know if Senator Joyce or Senator Boswell have some deal to get something out of this or if there has been a closed door arrangement with some other party in the Senate.

This frankly is a pretty shabby provision. It must have been cobbled together on the run because it is drafted in such a shabby way; it was pretty hard for Senator Parry to correct the damage that was done in the original drafting. Looking at the way that it is drafted, how could you suggest that the person can be appointed from time to time and that the person is going to be there to act as the chair when there is no chair? Presumably, if there was no chair of a committee, the first step would be for the committee to elect another one. But there is no provision for that. What a shambles of a proposition! This has been cobbled together in the last couple of days of the operation of the Senate, while those opposite have the numbers and know that they can do what they like. They have not paid attention to detail; they paid so little attention that they got it wrong in the drafting of these two motions. They intended to have the same provision; they did not even do that. When they did cobble together an alternative proposition, it was the sort of shabby proposition that we now see in Senator Parry’s foreshadowed amendment.

I want to touch on one other matter very briefly. We are looking at select committees purported to be on energy and the national broadband network. Frankly, I think Senator Conroy has demolished the proposition that we need the second reference. In terms of the energy matter, I would like to draw senators’ attention to the minority reports of the Senate Standing Committee on Economics inquiry into petrol prices. Even Senator Joyce had a minority report on that inquiry. At that time we were in opposition and our minority report pointed out that although we had some time to conduct the inquiry we had 24 hours to comment on the report prepared by the government-dominated committee, as it was at that time. We responded to the government report, and I invite members of the Senate and the public to look at the content of our report to see how genuine those opposite were in terms of presenting a proposition to the Australian people, consulting with the Senate and doing the proper inquiry thing, which is part of the justification for this inquiry.

But do not take my word for it; do not take Labor’s word for it. Have a look at comments to that inquiry of Senator Andrew Murray, the senator leaving here who was eulogised by those opposite last night. He was absolutely scathing about the way that the then government, basically the Liberal Party, ran the inquiry into petrol, in terms of the ability to have a considered report into an important issue. But now we are going to spend money and provide officers for those on the other side. That is what this is all about: providing committee chairs and allowing them to dispense largesse by a power that has been granted whilst they have the numbers. It is a pretty shabby exercise by those opposite and they should hang their heads in shame.