Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Materiel) Share this | Hansard source

It is to do with hypocrisy, Minister.

Senator Conroy interjecting—

We were not in bed with the Australian Democrats. We did not sign a deal with the Australian Democrats. The Democrats voted against us more often than they voted for us in this parliament. So, rewarding those sorts of dirty tactics is just unconscionable and I do not believe the Senate should do it.

Imagine if we came back in the next parliament—were we fortunate enough to be on the other side of the chamber—and we said, 'Well, the National Party is a separate party and they are entitled to their own allocation of chairmanships, quite separate from the government's.' What would you people say about that? You would be up in arms. You would be out of your trees with rage. But that is exactly what you are doing here today, and you know it. You know that this is a very bad precedent to be setting. This is not a good way for the Senate to proceed. It degrades the value of a very important process in this Senate. I think the chairmanship of the two manifestations of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee should reflect the voting intention of Australians at the last election and the composition of this Senate. With this motion being passed it will not do either of those things.