Senator VANSTONE (Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs)(5.26 p.m.) —There are only two things that I would like to respond to briefly. I refer Senator Carr to page 165 of the 1996 version of the DEETYA publication `Selected Higher Education Statistics' where there is a very clear definition of a higher education course, which is the definition that I think would be suitable. I think that was referred to in passing this morning.

Senator Harradine, I understand what you say. You rightly identify my own interest in the parliament having the capacity to keep a check on the executive. I simply ask you to consider that the depth of feeling on the other side vis-a-vis this matter is such that you need to ponder two circumstances that could easily eventuate next year. As I understand it, there may be a senator in this place against whom a constitutional challenge may be raised and be successful. Labor, if they thought there was an opportunity to do that, may well take that up at some time. They could do that. It is easily foreseeable that a senator could have a constitutional challenge to their entitlement to sit. That could happen.

If that did happen and, at the same time, just one other senator—perhaps an independent such as you, if you were motivated by my arguments to support this—were absent and therefore not paired, the political will could be there, for no other reason than the crass politics of the day, to deny the passage of those regulations. That could happen and I am concerned that that would happen. You understand that. I just wanted to highlight that point to you.