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

Senator Harradine told me shortly after I arrived here that this chamber is different to the House in that there is a sense of goodwill here that does not always prevail in the House. Whichever side of the issue you were on yesterday, a hugely important piece of legislation for this nation—that is, the carbon package—had its eventual passage through the Senate. I just did an interview with the BBC and my colleague Senator Milne has been talking with media in New Zealand. It has been written up in today's New York Times. The impact of this legislation is globally important.

Yesterday, when the final vote was taken on the legislation, you will know, Mr Deputy President, that the press gallery had more than 40 members—something I have not seen since the passage of the goods and services tax more than a decade ago. It was a major and historic moment for the Greens, and there were quite a number of cameras in the press gallery. Senator Heffernan got from his chair and walked down and stood in front of the contingent of Greens to obscure the cameras making a record of that event as we shook hands and generally were happy that the passage of that legislation had taken place. I am not particularly miffed about whether or not we get coverage obscured, but it was a churlish and childish thing for Senator Heffernan to do. He frequently invades other people's press conferences, other people's moments, book launches and so on. It was rude, if not to the Greens, to the photographers in the gallery, to the cameras here and to the watching and listening public, because it obscured their right to see the events taking place in this chamber.

I know that there has been some debate in the other house about similar moves by members of parliament to obscure cameras. I do not understand, frankly, what motivates people to do that, but I think it is below the simple dignity, the reasonableness and the maturity of this chamber to have a senator behave in that fashion. He may—