Senator BROWN (8:30 PM) —I have only three minutes, so I will make some brief points. Firstly, this is an important matter. I congratulate the Labor Party for making it very clear that they are not going to support the clear effort of the coalition in government to degrade the standard of democracy which leads to the Senate being a more representative body for the people of Australia—on a one vote, one value basis—than the House of Representatives.

Senator Coonan used words to the effect that any proposal for reform should try to improve the governance of Australia. If she were true to that, the first place she would go to would be the House of Representatives, where we currently have a government with a majority elected by 40 per cent of the voters and where we have single member electorates, which means that an average of 50 per cent of people in many electorates around Australia do not have anybody whom they voted for representing them. The single-member electorate system is far less democratic than proportional representation, which we have here in the Senate.

When you look at Senator Coonan's proposal as it appeared in the press, you see that she is really trying to give a different voting status to those who vote for the big parties as against to those who vote for Independents and minor parties. For the first, your preferences count. For the second, if you are below the threshold she sets, your preferences do not count. The end result of this—Senator Coonan can try to deny this—is that her prescription would mean that I would not be in here, although I got eight per cent of the vote in my electorate, but she would be elected, although she got—and listen to this—0.0005 per cent.

She received less than one-ten thousandth of the vote that I got, but her prescription has me out and her in because I am in a minor party, the Greens, and she is in the big party, the coalition, which has some God-given right to a greater say in representation. That undercuts the whole tenet of democracy. That undercuts the rule that there should be one vote, one value. It is a flow-on indication of her vote to overrule the parliament of the Northern Territory on the matter of euthanasia in the Andrews bill that came before this parliament last year. One step into the pool of cutting democracy is taken and then the next one is taken.

I want to finish by again congratulating the Labor Party for standing up to this kite-flying exercise from the Liberal Party. It is not irrelevant, as Senator McGauran described Senator Coonan's move to fly kites. It is very important, and a great stand has been taken by people on this side of the chamber. (Time expired)