Senator BROWN (8:57 PM) —It would. That is the problem, you see. If you are sitting on Bruny Island or King Island and looking at this piece of legislation, you recognise that mainland Tasmania is part of the state—so is King Island, so is Flinders Island, so is Bruny Island, Maria Island and so on. Mainland Tasmania is an island which makes up part of the state of Tasmania, which has quite a list of other islands which give you the completion of the whole state. This legislation says that `any island that forms part of a State or Territory' can be cut out. That includes mainland Tasmania.

I have not got to Senator Stott Despoja's observation that mainland Australia is an island. If you are looking at it from Hobart, mainland Australia is an island, and I am not sure that it is the most important island in the confederation. We Tasmanians tend to look at it as the `North Island'. In fact, if you come to Tasmania you will hear mainland Australia referred to quite frequently as the `North Island', because it is only part of the country. I am not going to take up that argument; I am here busy defending Tasmania. That is why there is an amendment coming up removing this anti-Tasmanian clause from the legislation. If that does not succeed, I will be moving another amendment. You have really got me going here.

Senator BROWN —Exactly. What happens if they next come in with some sort of electoral bill that does the same as the migration legislation we have got here and starts excising bits of Australia according to that?

Senator Stott Despoja —Or a racial discrimination bill.

Senator BROWN —Anything at all. It is absurd. This is a very silly clause, a very silly piece of legislation done on the run. It needs to be changed. The Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Mr Ruddock, lamely said on radio the other day that if we came up with Tasmania for regulation in the future the regulation could be knocked out by either house of parliament. But—as I think I heard Senator Schacht, in quite unruly fashion, interject earlier with comment, very helpfully—the fact is that a regulation can be brought in. For example, under current circumstances we are not going to be sitting after Friday. You can bring in a regulation on Saturday and it will be sitting there until whenever parliament next meets. And then, if a house of parliament wants to change that regulation, it takes some time. The government will get its way for months on end if we allow this to stand. I hope that the Labor Party will defend the Labor state of Tasmania and the other islands that Senator Schacht has mentioned by supporting the amendment that I will be putting shortly, after we have dealt with the very good amendment that Senator Bartlett has moved.