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

by leave—Madam Chair, the chickens have come home to roost for Senator Brown. We all recall when a coalition senator, for exactly the same reason as Senator Brown, inadvertently missed a vote in this place. And there was Senator Brown, high and mighty, condemning the coalition for being incompetent and unable to run themselves. ‘What a rabble the opposition was,’ he said. But of course when the self-righteous Leader of the Australian Greens does exactly the same thing it is covered with glory—it must be something good because it is Senator Bob Brown who has somehow inadvertently missed a vote.

I say to Senator Brown: read the Hansard. I am not addressing anybody personally; I am saying that Senator Brown should read the Hansard of the comments he made when a coalition senator missed a vote. He should read it and delete the word ‘coalition’ and instead insert the words ‘Australian Greens’. The hypocrisy will hit you in the face like nothing else. We said at the time that these things happen to senators on all sides and that for those who seek to make cheap political capital when there is such an occasion it will undoubtedly be revisited upon them.

Can I say to this chamber I am one of the fortunate ones, having been here even longer than Senator Brown and not having missed a division. That is more by good luck than good management, because inadvertence and other factors come into play from time to time. That is why a sensible—and I know that is a foreign word to the Australian Greens—approach to these matters and an acceptance of mistakes by senators all around the chamber is something that will occur in the day-to-day activities of the chamber as a whole and in the individual lives of senators in this place. But when you come into this place and seek to make cheap political capital and say how well organised the Australian Greens are, how good the Australian Greens are, what wonderful leadership the Australian Greens provide to the community and, ‘We do not miss votes’—