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

There is always a means of coming to a reasonable agreement on the basis of the information available. I do not mind what the argument is in either direction, but the amendment put forward is to enable a mutually agreeable time to be found for Dr Henry to appear before the committee, and I am sure that can be arranged. I would point out that not only did Dr Henry not always appear before the committee during the period of the coalition government but quite recently I asked for the Governor of the Reserve Bank to appear before a committee to look into the matter of the scandal surrounding Securency, which has half its board appointed by the Reserve Bank, and, if I remember correctly, the opposition voted to prevent that happening. So there is a double standard here. However, we are in favour of information being made available to the parliament when it wants it and hence the reasonable amendment that I put forward.