Senator BROWN (4:42 PM) —The people of Australia are not empowered to vote for the President. Let us get this straight. We are here dealing with a system where the ultimate appointment is by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition; it is a political appointment. The big parties might live to rue the day they turned down this sensible amendment. After two terms, if they want to change the President and do not select a renominating President, it is going to be seen as a political act extraordinaire to remove the President, effectively, and put someone else in place. I would have thought that this is a very sensible move. I do not think it has been well thought out by the big parties. I think it is in their interests.

The last argument that can be resorted to here is that the Australian people will at some stage or other want to have the President kept in office because she or he is popular. I reiterate that that is not going to be their prerogative. That option is not what we are dealing with. We are dealing with a system where ultimately the Prime Minister puts forward the nomination and has to get the agreement of the Leader of the Opposition. I think under those circumstances it is even more important that we have some end of tenure so that there is a smooth and politics minimised—it cannot ever be politics free—turnover of Presidents at least once a decade. I put it to both the Labor Party and the coalition that they should reconsider.

Amendment not agreed to.