Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave of the Senate to reopen the motion moved by Senator Fawcett in relation to the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, which I did want to make a couple of remarks on, but which unfortunately had finished before I could get to the chamber.

Leave granted.

I thank the Senate for that indulgence. I do note that 60 minutes is set aside for this section and a time limit of 10 minutes per speaker, so I hope not to delay the Senate for too long. I would like simply to congratulate Senator Fawcett and his committee on that work, particularly in relation to the treaty involving American troops in Australia. I did, in talking about that particular aspect, wish to heartily and thoroughly congratulate the Defence minister, Senator Johnston, on his role in negotiating with the American government in relation to that very, very important procedure for Australia. Senator Johnston has done a magnificent job as Minister for Defence, and I know he probably spends almost as much time in the United States as he does at his home these days. He has been a very well-informed minister whose knowledge of his portfolio is not superseded by any previous Defence minister in recent time.

There was a crass political exercise earlier in the day in relation to a motion of censure. These things are done on the basis of political arrangements in the chamber. If some senators think they can get a political handle or political one-upmanship on someone from an opposing party, they support this. You see the sort of people who lined up on that motion. It was almost as farcical as the decision of the Labor and Greens political parties to support the Palmer United Party on that farcical inquiry into the Newman government in Queensland. That inquiry is an absolute joke, and I think most people are treating it as such. Witnesses who have attended it realise that it is nothing to do with the corruption that Mr Palmer spoke about but simply a vindictive action by Mr Palmer and his party to pay back Campbell Newman for not giving him the mine and the coalmine he wanted.

Going back to Senator Johnston, he has done a marvellous job. A good friend of mine and a former distinguished Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Senator the Hon. John Herron, as he then was, was censured I think about six times by this chamber—again, by a combination of those who opposed the then government politically. Senator Herron used to often say, and I like to repeat it: 'You don't know where you are until you've been censured by at least five censure motions in the Senate.' These were censure motions that, as I said, were simply politically inspired and meant absolutely nothing.

So I say to Senator Johnston: keep up the good work; do not worry about the censure motion. You have a long way to go to catch up with then Senator Herron's record. He wore it as a badge of courage, because it showed that he was doing real work that the opposition parties did not like, and the only way they could challenge it was by moving these ridiculous censure motions in the chamber. As I said, Senator Herron wore it as a badge of courage—that he was doing such a wonderful job that the Labor Party wanted to keep moving motions of censure and getting their mates in the Greens, or then the Democrats, to join with them. Nobody takes much notice of them, and I would say that Senator Johnston should treat that political farce earlier in the day in the same way as most Queenslanders are treating the political farce that is the Palmer-inspired inquiry into the Newman government.