Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens support this amendment, but I do have to put the record straight and say that when this measure was introduced into the Senate the opposition indicated it would vote against this bill. There was no talk of amendments then; there were no amendments tabled. At that point, Senator Xenophon flagged that he would be developing amendments to that effect, did so and they were written and available in the negotiation the first time around. It was at that point that the opposition was determined to just vote down the bill. I acknowledge that one of the concerns that the coalition had in opposing the bill was the retrospectivity, but there were certainly no amendments on the table because the intention was to vote it down. It has only been since the bill came back with the prospect of being passed that the coalition in fact mimicked Senator Xenophon’s amendment. Therefore, I think it is entirely appropriate that we have his amendment on the table now and we will vote for it. I think it is a good thing that it is going to get up, because it is the right thing to do, but I think we should have an accurate take on what occurred.