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

This is an extraordinary abuse, again, by the government of the Senate. The government says, inter alia, that it cannot make up its mind on a motion as simple as this one, which at once congratulates both President Obama and the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, for having met the Dalai Lama and encourages Prime Minister Rudd to do the same at the earliest opportunity. That is pretty clear. It is pretty simple. It is not complicated. It will not confuse members of the public, even though the government might think that it will. It will be known that it came from the Senate.

I also had the pleasure of meeting the Dalai Lama. There is an enormous amount of concern that Prime Minister Rudd ducked the opportunity to meet the Dalai Lama quite recently, but there was a terrific response to the President of the United States meeting with him, and there were congratulations from the Greens, but also from many other people, to Mr Abbott, the honourable Leader of the Opposition, on meeting His Holiness the Dalai Lama when he visited Sydney in December.

The government can make its own decision on this, and the Prime Minister did make his decision. He did not have the courage to meet the Dalai Lama, but President Obama has now done so and I think a good many of us will congratulate President Obama, when becomes to this country, for showing a good deal more courage, common sense, courtesy and respect to this great world leader than has our Prime Minister.