Senator BOB COLLINS(4.22 p.m.) —I can understand Senator Margetts's concern about the difficulty of ordinary citizens in getting into court to argue a case, and I am sure there are circumstances where that has, perhaps, caused some problems. But I must say that that would be, in my view, significantly outweighed by enacting a law here that would simply overturn the question of standing which, of course, is a matter routinely addressed by judicial bodies around Australia. This may well be a matter clarified in the negative by the Acts Interpretation Act or some other act, but I was curious about the reference to any person being able to take this course of action as to whether that person would necessarily even need to be a citizen of Australia.

Perhaps if we carried this act it would be arguable that the Nebraskan chapter of Greenpeace, for example, might be able to take some action unless that was ruled out, as I say, by a definition of `person' in the Acts Interpretation Act or some other act. It would probably be arguable, at least, that you would not even need to be an Australian citizen to take this course of action. We think it casts the net far too wide and we will not be supporting it.