Senator CAVANAGH (South Australia) - I rise to express surprise at the refusal of the Government to accept the amendment. The amendment shows that every senator on this side of the House supports the Bill. The Opposition has expressed the opinion that the Senate should call upon the Government to do certain things. Would any individual in the Government parties disagree with what the Government has been called upon to do? The first part of the amendment calls upon the Government to increase significantly indigenous industrial research and development activity in Australia. Is anyone opposed to that? The second part of the amendment calls upon the Government to prohibit restrictive practices related to patents and licences. Is anyone opposed to that? Is the amendment not a good expression of our beliefs?

The important thing is that the steps which the Government has been called upon to take were recommended by the Senate Standing Committee on Science and the Environment. I have not been a great supporter of the standing committee system, but if the Senate appoints standing committees and puts them forward as a great innovation of the chamber it should not reject committee proposals. The second reading stage of the Bill has been agreed to by the Senate. We are so bound to a system of Executive control that we cannot accept decisions made by our committees. We are not a separate House; we are part of the Executive control system. We cannot express an opinion. No one genuinely could oppose the two expressions of opinion contained in the amendment. The Executive system simply prevents the Senate from agreeing to those opinions. We are condemning the decisions of our own creation because we are involved in a system whereby we have to accept what the Government says as correct and have to go along with it.