Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

You are right. This is a very serious matter and we are going down a very dangerous track when people come into this place, arming themselves with SCs, and we get opinions from legal firms. It is going to make this place a nightmare. No-one will ever be able to say anything. This is the point. We have privilege in this place, and that is being abused by the reference by Senator Brown, who is going to arm himself up, man up, with SCs and advice from the legal fraternity.

Senator Brown, you have got the option today to withdraw it. If you have any regard for the Senate as a place of free debate, you will withdraw it. But to take out your vengeance on the Presiding Officer when he was doing his job is just unacceptable. It is unacceptable from the Labor Party and it is unacceptable, I would imagine, from the Independents, and certainly from the Liberal National Party, it is totally unacceptable. So I ask you to just think about this before you go ahead. You are opening up new territory here, dangerous territory.