Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I do appreciate the discussions I have had with both Senator Minchin and Senator Ludwig in relation to this. I wish to make the point in relation to the motion that I jointly moved with my colleague Senator Hanson-Young that precedents can be made by this place; we are not bound by previous precedents and we can set a new precedent. If the concern of senators is that this would open the floodgates for you, Mr President, to be obliged to invite a whole host of people to the distinguished visitors’ gallery, I would have thought that this was quite narrowly confined in the sense that we are talking about a remarkable individual who has won the Nobel Peace Prize, who addressed a joint sitting of the United States congress in 1991, who received a US congressional medal in 2007, who addressed the European parliament both in 2001 and as recently as November 2008, and who has been made an honorary citizen of Canada.

I do not think it would disrupt the business of the Senate unduly for the Dalai Lama to be invited to the distinguished visitors’ gallery on the floor of the Senate and to be acknowledged. I would have thought, if there are a handful of individuals in the world of his stature that he was one of them, and this would not set a precedent that would be disruptive to the business of the Senate or be unreasonable in the circumstances. I express my disappointment that we cannot go down this path, and I hope that one day the Senate will revisit this issue as to who can be invited to the distinguished visitors’ gallery.

Question put:

That the motion (Senator Hanson-Young’s and Senator Xenophon’s) be agreed to.