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

Senator Wong is quite right: we had agreed to the change in terminology. But the opposition does not agree, and that is consistent with the position that it should be spelt out that the position is full time. Let me cut to the chase here. If the opposition does not support the amendment, it will not succeed in this place. The government and Greens cannot make it happen and I want to see that this does happen, so this is simply reiterating the position we have carried all the way through.

If the amendment succeeds—and I see that it will—I would then expect to have some talks with the minister and the minister’s representatives, because this is not the biggest ticket item that this Senate has dealt with in history. This is a very, very small amount of money. In fact, we are talking about an impost on the people of Tasmania if the government does not ensure that this position is funded, and it can do that without interfering in the workings of the court. So I am sure that a bit of negotiation can come to a common-sense outcome here, but I am not prepared to see the amendment lost in this place, which would therefore mean we would not have an outcome until sometime next year at the earliest.