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

Mr President, on a point of order: clearly, we are hearing a peroration, not an explanation or a short contribution to the Senate. I ask the senator to say how long he will be in making this delivery to the Senate. There was—and there is—the opportunity for a full debate on this matter if the opposition had wanted that. It obviously did not. If each of the senators who have a point of view on this were to follow this course of action, we would be having a de facto debate on the matter. I simply ask Senator Brandis to say if he is containing this to three, four or five minutes.