Senator BROWN (11:46 AM) —Sir Isaac Isaacs said to give power to the people and we have been repeating that in our own way this morning. Senator Cooney and the government are saying, `Yes, but not to the lawyers.' He did not mean for it to be given to the politicians. He certainly did not mean for it all to be accreted to the Prime Minister and the unelected advisers in the Prime Minister's office.

We are saying that the Prime Minister should have to act to appoint a President. We have failed to establish that the people's nominations will necessarily be the ones the Prime Minister puts forward. Senator Ellison, in representing the government, is now saying, `You would have to go back and start the process again.' I submit that a Prime Minister worth his or her salt would go straight back to the nominations and put forward an alterna tive. To leave the space vacant might seem appealing to the big parties whose Prime Minister is going to be in office at the time because it would give all power to the Prime Minister but it is not in the best interests of the people.

For Senator Ellison to suggest that the Prime Minister would not have the wit or wisdom in these circumstances to come up with another nominee within six weeks is laughable. Of course they would. Senator Bolkus said, `In this circumstance, parliaments would be compelled to act and there would be political pressure put on them.' That is the same as saying six weeks is plenty of time. The Prime Minister would have to act. All the better if, in the Constitution, there is a time limit. To suggest that six weeks is not enough time to put forward a nomination to fill a vacancy does not withstand any sort of scrutiny.

Once again, we are putting a very limited but reasonable set of guidelines to a Prime Minister in office to contain that Prime Minister so that they simply cannot make this into a political football match, that they have some limitations on what they do and that, if we do get into a mess over the appointment of a President further down the line, the Australian people are simply not left to wait out the duration of whichever government is in power at the time before they can do something about it at the ballot box. This amendment put forward by Senator Murray is very reasonable. I am amazed that Labor, let alone the government, are not supporting it.

Amendment not agreed to.