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

It is just after six am. We have been in committee for about 12 hours. We are now dealing with amendments. I have had a few inquiries. People are waking up and wondering, understandably, where it is all up to. I think it is worth reminding ourselves, as I think some of us are starting to wake up a bit more as well, that we are dealing with government amendments. In this lot there are nine amendments. We have had two votes so far. We are now considering the third amendment.

The CHAIRMAN: Senator Rhiannon, we are considering amendment (4).

Thank you. I am happy to take that correction. The point here is that we are considering something that is very fundamental to the voting process. Specifically at the moment we are looking at below-the-line voting. This change that we are considering in this amendment is to allow people when they vote below the line—this is what the instructions would be—to number at least 12 boxes and then as many as they like. This grouping of nine amendments are all basically the same. People are asking, 'What is going on? We have 60 amendments. It is 12 hours later. What is going on here?' What is going on is that we need to look at Labor's tactics. There was a possibility here—and minister has moved this twice—to consider the amendments, which are all on the same thing, together. They are all on this issue of voting below the line. Labor have stopped that. For those who just heard the speech from Senator Cameron, it was really a rerun of the speeches we have been hearing all night. They are very generalist and not moving on to the detail. Fair enough. They are able to address the issue as they wish, obviously.

Opposition senators interjecting—

I am again happy to acknowledge the interjections. But, again, we need to remind ourselves—and I think this is very informative for those who are now starting to tune in—that all parties in this Senate, apart from the Labor Party, support these amendments. We know there is wide public support. When we were in the inquiry—and Senator Collins would have heard this—Professor George Williams described how he went to the polling booth. He had his young daughter with him. He would have liked to have voted below the line but he just did not have the time to fill in every box when there were about 100 candidates that needed to be numbered. Many people do not do that. We have all heard those stories.

Here we have Labor not contributing to the debate in a constructive way. They can vote against this. They can continue to rail against it. But this measure itself is something they should be able to support because it is clearly democratic and it is clearly needed. Labor are running a strong line. They are dishing out blame left, right and centre—particularly to the Greens. The more we hear from them, the prouder I am of our own position. As they try to discredit others who are associated with this reform, they themselves are becoming more discredited. If you look at this very amendment here—a measure that will allow more people to choose to vote below the line rather than above the line—they cannot even support that. They are discrediting themselves and they are absolutely on the wrong side of history on this one.