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

by leave—I thank the Senate. This is an important motion and right in the heart of this is the word ‘advice.’ I ask senators to take that into consideration. I know from trying to keep my own affairs clear and within the rules of proper expenditure of public money—as all senators do—that you very often cannot get advice on whether a matter is part of electoral spending or not. I think parliamentarians ought to be able to get such advice. We have only to look at the debacle in Britain at the moment to know that it is better not to put our head in the sand but to know exactly what we are doing here.

The government says there are not people trained to be able to give that advice. There ought to be. There should be clear guidelines and the Taxation Office should keep a watch on this. There is no public reporting from the Taxation Office—nor should it be a watchdog on this matter. I thank the minister. We will be supporting the government in establishing a form of advice to members of parliament as well as a watchdog in the public interest, because there is a considerable amount of public money involved. We will not be acceding to a process of putting this on the shelf and allowing it to drift. That is what worries me about the government’s opposition at this time. I take up the offer for further talks. I would like to see this matter expedited and have some resolution this year.

Question put.