Senator FORSHAW(12.07 p.m.) —Senator Lees, I am quite aware of the fact that these amendments relate to that issue of the complaints. The point that I was making is that what the Democrats have signed off relates to reviews of the legislation. There are no other amendments coming from the government, and I do not see any from the Democrats, that put into place in the legislation a capacity for that wholesale review to occur in two years, for a review in three months and for a single instrument.

The only measure that exists in the legislation is this one that relates to handling of complaints from individuals. Senator Lees has spoken about that and, as I have said, we do not object to that. We will support these amendments, but there are no other amendments that reflect this agreement. The point that we are trying to make and to which we want some answers is: why not? At the end of the day, what you are left with is simply still a mechanism for individual complaints to be dealt with. Does this process also allow, for instance, for systemic complaints to be made—complaints that go beyond the complaints of individuals? If it does, how does it do it? That is the point that I am making.

Whilst I understand that we are specifically dealing with amendments 1 and 2, amendment 2 actually refers to clause 96-3 in the bill, which relates to the establishment of committees and which presumably could also at least provide for potential establishment of some broader based committee looking at broader issues. Amendment 3 contains a specific amendment to clause 96-3, so the point is that you cannot actually discuss amendments 1 and 2 without reflecting or commenting upon what is contained in amendment 3.

I understand precisely what Senator Lees is saying, but we want to know where in these amendments and where in the legislation there will be any legislative basis for conducting the review and assessing the operation of the instrument, which has been identified by the Democrats and the government as being so crucial to their agreement, to getting the Democrats to now support this legislation. Only a matter of a couple of days ago, it was understood they probably still had major concerns. Where is it? We cannot see it. It is not there. It should be there if it is so integral to the operation of this legislation as it is brought on stream over the next year or so. That is the question that we want answered. Clearly it is not there. The question is: why not? It appears to us that the Democrats have been sold a big con here.