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

And, of course, wreck the great service that is being done in Hobart. That is what will happen. It is hogwash.

Now that Senator Abetz is here, and I know he has had an important other matter to attend to, I again appeal to my Tasmanian colleagues to again consider supporting this amendment, because we are not going to get this opportunity for a long time to come. This bill has been before the parliament for 10 months. There is no argument for delay by the government—I do not accept the argument that if this amendment were to be passed it will go to the House and then the two houses of parliament will have to come to an agreement on it. My prediction is that the government will very quickly concede to keeping the registrar in Hobart because it is such a piffling amount that we are dealing with here and it is such an unimportant matter in terms of financial outcomes. Of course, the amendment does not add any impost to the current functioning of the court, and therefore the Senate is quite entitled to make it.

Senator Barnett indicated that there were other bills coming down the line. I do not think the government is going to see those bills come into this place this year or this side of the next federal election. It has taken 10 months for this bill to get to where it is. The two supplementary memoranda accompanying the changes to the bill were moved in this place in May. May, June, July, August, September: that is four months delay.