Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I thank Senator Bob Brown for reminding us of the good old days. More seriously, can I say from the opposition’s point of view that we love Senator Xenophon and Senator Fielding dearly and we would love to have them both on the committee, but the reality is, and the practice has been, as Senator Brown has outlined. Given that there is unable to be a resolution between Senator Xenophon and Senator Fielding of who out of the two Independents should be on the committee, that is a matter of regret. But that is the motion that I jointly sponsored with Senator Milne and we are minded, therefore, to continue with the motion as is, which of course has the unfortunate and regrettable consequence of voting against Senator Fielding’s amendment. We would invite him to understand, though, that the reason we are doing that is simply because of the way these matters have been dealt with in the past and not for any other reason. Of course, the best resolution from the coalition’s point of view would be if you, Senator Fielding, and Senator Xenophon could come to an agreement between the two of you—but I think that might require pistols at 20 paces, which I am sure is against standing orders. Accordingly, the Senate will undoubtedly need to resolve it by ballot later on.