Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party, Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to start by welcoming back Senator Xenophon. When I heard he had been detained in Malaysia I went on an immediate hunger strike and I was not going to eat again until they released him. As you can see, I have wasted away to a shadow, because 17 hours later they kicked him out. I was there with you in spirit. I think it will go down as one of the biggest political fights of modern time.

On a more serious note, I do concur with the message of Senator Xenophon in wanting transparency. There is always the battle that exists between, to be honest, the party structure—which likes to have the party's name as premier and the individual's name as secondary—and the reality of politics which is ultimately driven by the desires of an individual even within the party. There must be the understanding that you are voting for an individual. It has always been a concern of mine that here in the Senate we are the states house, but the discussion is always around party blocs and not around the states, which you would think it should be. When people talk about the discourse that happens in this chamber, and sometimes it is not professional, I always believe a great way to fix that would be to have people sit in state blocs rather than party blocs. It is very hard to yell at somebody who is sitting beside you. I know that idea is never going to go anywhere, but it does go to show that the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters has an immense responsibility. That is, they have to put aside their party beliefs and focus on what is in the interests of the Australian people—in delivering back to them the proper representation of their intentions without presuming that their intentions are our intentions, because our intentions are about the survival of our parties and the Independents. What we have to focus on is: is this individual getting an authentic representation of their desires in the way they vote?

You see another classic example when people vote above the line for the Senate. No-one actually knows where their preferences go. Their preferences are allocated, but no-one knows where they go. I think many people do not even understand that there is an allocation of preferences if you vote above the line. I cannot help myself. I always vote below the line in the Senate—and they say that is a great recipe for an invalid vote—because I like to allocate my own preferences for who should be last and who should be first—which is generally me.