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

I am the chairman of the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee. We're very happy to deal with that, as we deal with all other bills referred by this chamber. Senator Wong used the argument that the references committee had already dealt with the matter. Of course, clearly they didn't. The references committee dealt with a referral by, as it turned out, the majority of the Senate to the references committee of not this bill but of a similar issue.

Mr President, if this Senate is to have any credibility whatsoever, we have to follow the rule since time immemorial—well, since the two committees were created—that all bills are referred to the legislation committees, which were set up specifically to look at legislation. The references committees were set up to look at anything vaguely in the area of legal and constitutional affairs that the parliament might decide the references committee should refer to.

This is an outrageous breach not only of the by-laws of the Senate but also of the principles and spirit of the Senate dealing with the executive's actions. The executive put forward these bills and private senators put forward these bills, and they're always been referred to the legislation committee, not to the references committee.