Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—President, these are quite farcical arrangements outlined by the government. It's a farce of the Prime Minister's own making in the way in which he chose to structure his own ministry. There are just four Senate ministers here. There are just four Senate ministers in the Senate. The last time a government had only four ministers in the Senate goes all the way back to 1940. Back then, the Senate had only 36 senators in total, not the 76 there are today. There were only 16 ministers back then, not the 30 there are today.