Senator BOB COLLINS(5.41 p.m.) —Madam Acting Deputy President, I wish to make a personal explanation.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT (Senator West) —Senator Collins, do you claim to have been misrepresented?

Senator BOB COLLINS —Yes, I claim to have been misrepresented—indeed, by the same minister, which he acknowledged across the chamber. I was also accused of being motivated by nothing—

Senator Ferguson —Not by me.

Senator BOB COLLINS —No, by Senator Alston, I just said—

Senator Carr —`Minister'.

Senator BOB COLLINS —`Minister,' I said. That accusation is absolutely incorrect, and I want to correct the record. I am not motivated in any sense by revenge in respect of anything I have said about Senator Colston. I wish to make it clear, because I was accused of the contrary. I personally did not know about these claims. I found out about them only when they were published. Indeed, I think there is an unassailable case for the publication of these records for both houses of parliament—not just the Senate, both the Senate and the House of Representatives—and the sooner the better.

The reason that I was motivated was not by revenge, as Senator Alston suggested, I was motivated by simply this: I had the privilege of chairing the Standing Committee on Regulations and Ordinances, between 1987 and 1990, for over two years. I am intimately familiar with the workload of the chair of that committee. I would hope that the staff of the committee, and that was principally Peter O'Keeffe, would be prepared to attest to the fact—if they were questioned by the Federal Police, and I think they should be, in terms of the workload required of the chair—that I was as competent a chair of that committee as any other.

The committee has not changed its practices in 10 years. The committee still meets at 8.30 on Thursday mornings for half an hour in each sitting fortnight. The workload has not increased, and that is what—

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT —Senator—

Senator BOB COLLINS —I am concluding now, Madam Acting Deputy President. That is what motivates me, because I know that the 10 or 11 nights Senator Colston claimed in the first year, the 22 in the second year—when he got a taste for it—and the 32 in the third year are fraudulent claims.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT —Senator Collins, you are required—

Senator BOB COLLINS —If nothing else happens, perhaps the average of the claims of the four previous chairs could be added together and averaged out. Senator Colston could at least repay the excess.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT —Senator Collins, you are required to state where you have been misrepresented. You have strayed very wide past that mark.

Senator BOB COLLINS —I have finished.