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

That is a very wise ruling. It was a very poor attempt by Senator Macdonald to take up time defending the indefensible, and my comments on him stand. I wanted to get to the matter at hand, which is a reference, through the President and requested by Senator Boswell, to the ACCC to take action and investigate alleged secondary boycotts against Max Brenner et cetera. The ACCC has said it closely examined the issue and has rejected it. There is no further action to be taken by the ACCC. It is taking a watching brief and finds that effectively Senator Boswell has been wasting its time and wasting this Senate's time on pursuit of a failed political point. Senator Boswell has been a complete failure on that score. The ACCC is the arbiter of that, not I. That having been said, the contributions we have just heard border on the unacceptable for a Senate debate.