Senator CONROY (4:27 PM) —I think I did make that point of myself, and this is a chance to assist the corporate governance guidelines. I will just respond very briefly to Senator Murray because Senator Murray's intentions are always honourable in this area. We have discussed it previously. I am an optimist—and I know that you would never like to be described as a pessimist, Senator Murray—and I am optimistic that we can make this system work. You have probably given up on it and you think that it is fundamentally broken—in what I would describe as a pessimistic view—and therefore you probably believe that we need to go to a completely different model. But I retain my degree of optimism that we can make this system work. I appreciate your indications of support for the amendments. It is no surprise to find this government siding with the big end of town against the shareholders. This is what these choices are throughout this debate. Whom are you going to back: the big end of town, the corporate boards, or shareholders? This government will stand condemned because, as we are now seeing, amendment after amendment and vote after vote it will always side with the big end of town.

Question agreed to.