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

Thank you, Mr Acting Deputy President. You can see this particular senator has no respect for the chamber and keeps trying to stop other people from having their say, which is typical of the Greens. They always rail about freedom of speech. They talk about it for everyone else, but when people try to say something they continually take alleged points of order which they know are not points of order.

As I was saying, Senator McKim was—would anyone believe?—once a minister in a government, albeit the government of Tasmania. I might ask Senator McKim: how many legal advices did the government of which you were once a member release publicly? I put the same question to Senator Collins. We've heard what Mr Gareth Evans, former senator and Attorney-General, said about releasing legal advice. Senator Collins, you might indicate to us how many times your party in government did that. If it is one or two, I would be interested in hearing about it. But I certainly follow the dictum of former Senator Evans in relation to legal advice. I invite Senator McKim to indicate how many times the government of which he was a member released legal advice.

Senator McKim, in his flowery speech, spoke about a crisis of confidence in democracy. If there were ever an example of a crisis of confidence in democracy, it is the Greens political party. Time and time again we see the Greens political party wasting the resources of this parliament and stopping proper debate on an important bill that the government is trying to deal with by this Mickey Mouse suggestion of getting some legal advice. I refer to a Greens motion where they set up, with the support of the Labor Party and the Xenophon party, a committee to look into a matter of political donations, which is exactly the same thing a joint standing committee—a permanent standing committee of this parliament—is looking into at this very moment. It is exactly the same thing, exactly the same subject, and yet the Greens political party, supported by the Labor Party and by Senator Xenophon, are setting up yet another committee to do exactly the same.

So we're going to have two parliamentary committees inquiring into the same thing. Witnesses are going to be confused. We're using the resources of the Senate, which are limited—you wouldn't believe it if you saw the number of ridiculous inquiries the Greens have set up. The resources of the Senate are limited. Those resources should be directed towards real inquiries, not something where another committee is doing exactly the same. Mr Acting Deputy President, there, in that corner, where the Greens sit, is the crisis in democracy in Australia.