Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

Just so I'm clear, Senator Pocock, you say the figure is $1.7 million, not $2.1 million. Is that your point? Let's accept that. For the point of argument tonight, let's accept your figure of $1.7 million. In the whole history of time of elections in the Australian Capital Territory, no Senate candidate has ever spent anything like $1.7 million to get themselves elected. No candidate has ever, ever done that.

Labor, the Liberals or the Greens have never spent $1.7 million to get themselves elected. Good luck to you. I'm not complaining. They were the rules back then. You complied with the rules, and you got yourself elected. But what I say is that, if you want ordinary Australians—people like Senator Urquhart, here, who are very ordinary; extraordinary, I should say! I'll pick some ordinary people. Senator McGrath, he's volunteered. He is a very, very ordinary person. I can tell you that. Ordinary people like him should be able to stand and project their crazy views about—

An honourable senator interjecting—

No, he should be able to put himself up to the electorate and say, 'Please vote for me, because I've got these ideas, however crazy those ideas might be.' But not everybody, Senator Pocock, has access to $1.7 million, and then there's the other Senator Pocock—I bet she didn't spend anything like $1.7 million to get herself elected. She went out there—

The TEMPORARY CHAIR: Point of order, Senator Hanson?