Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also want to speak on the motion to take note of the documents tabled by Senator Wong. This is a serious issue for the Senate and every senator should be concerned about this issue, because this is not a matter of whether you agree or disagree with the health insurance amendment or the rebate. You can actually put that to one side at the moment. This is to do with whether this Senate remains a chamber that can raise a bill. If we allow the Minister for Health and Ageing to get away with what she has put forward in the lower house, it turns this Senate into nothing more than an appendage of the lower house.

It is a disgrace that any senator in this chamber could accept what the minister has put forward as a reason why the bill that was passed in this chamber should not be considered by the lower house. If you are a senator with any guts, you should stand up to the minister. You should stand up to Minister Roxon on this issue. Forget about whether you agree or disagree on the actual item itself. It is a joke to think that any senator would not stand here and say Minister Roxon has got it wrong. I would like to see the legal advice that challenges what the Clerk of the Senate has given us.

Tomorrow we will stand here and say that Harry Evans has done a great job. He has had the decency to put forward advice to senators saying that what we passed in this chamber does actually fall well within the Constitution. For not one senator from the Labor Party to stand here and defend the Senate is a disgrace. You will not even table the legal advice. You will not even table it to challenge what the Senate can do. What Minister Roxon has put forward, saying that the bill that we passed in this chamber does not meet the Constitution and therefore cannot be debated in the lower house, is an absolute joke. We are senators from Australia. We are not an appendage of the lower house.

The bill that has been passed in this chamber falls within the Constitution, and for the lower house not to even debate it because of some legal advice that we cannot see that says that it is not constitutional is rubbish and a joke. If you are not prepared to table that advice then every senator in this chamber—whether you are Labor, Liberal, Family First, Greens or an Independent—should stand up for the Senate. You should be here today defending the Senate and its ability to pass bills when that falls within the Constitution.

I am very disappointed. I call on Labor to get their minister to table the legal advice that they have got so that we can have this out once and for all. I do not know what else we can do with this—whether we can get the President to rule on it. It is outrageous to think the Senate has been challenged here. This is not to do at all with the issue of Medicare rebates. This is to do with the Senate’s ability to pass a bill. Why in the hell should we accept the lower house not even looking at it because of some legal advice they will not even table? I think we should get this chamber to have another look at the reasons behind this, because this is outrageous.

The reason the government opposed the motion for the suspension of standing orders so that the bill could be debated in this House was that the government had received advice that the bill was inconsistent with sections 53 and 56 of the Constitution. That is the claim the lower house have made. But the Clerk of the Senate, who I think has got some experience and understanding of the issue, says that it is actually constitutionally okay. We should be defending the right of the Senate to put forward bills within the Constitution. For the Senate not to ask the minister to explain and provide that advice is outrageous. For Labor senators to roll over and say that we should be an appendage of the lower house is a disgrace.