Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much. I take that interjection from my colleague, because that is the essence—logical, working through and giving the evidence. What it shows is that the key objection of Labor—and remember they have had many objections along the way—is this issue around exhausted votes. They are now saying, 'Oh, yes, we can see the system is not perfect.' How many times—and you know Senator Wong, because I have sat with you and heard you say and nod your head when Senator Conroy will go into his rage about how terrible the proposal is that we are now considering. What would he say? He would say to us, 'I will not have anything to do with it, because it will lock the coalition into controlling the Senate for ever in a day.' That has been the argument, but you have realised that you have had to modify. You have landed on this issue around exhausted votes, and now that has been exposed.

I think we have to remember this is coming from a few senators here. Gary Gray was air-brushed from history and removed from his job on 2 March. Who comes in? Brendan O'Connor. Maybe he has commented. I could not find any comment where he has come in and added his voice to the biggest electoral issue going on at the moment. How extraordinary. The Special Minister for State has nothing to say. If he has said something, please inject it into this discussion.

What is also relevant to this discussion are some comments that Mr Antony Green gave when we had the inquiry. This is in response to a question from Senator Conroy about exhausted votes. Antony Green states:

I will point out a different ballot paper, which is the ACT Legislative Assembly ballot paper. It has something similar to what will be on the Senate ballot paper. It says, 'Number seven boxes from 1 to 7 in the order of your choice.' You may then go on and number from eight onwards. They only get about two per cent with less than seven preferences. So a ballot paper that says number up to that—

And then Mr Conroy interjects again. My key point is that Mr Antony Green has shared with us some very useful information about an electoral system that is actually similar to what we are proposing for this Senate.

Opposition senators interjecting—

What the very useful evidence given to the inquiry from Mr Antony Green and Dr Bonham has again absolutely demolished—

Opposition senators interjecting—

the last argument—and at this point Senator Conroy walked out of the door. The last argument that Labor have in justifying—