Senator BOB BROWN (Leader of the Australian Greens) (3:43 PM) —I seek leave to make a brief statement.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT —Leave is granted for two minutes.

Senator BOB BROWN —This is an important motion about decency in election advertising and about truth in election advertising. I am surprised that Labor and the government senators did not support it. It is true that the motion has its basis in Labor’s ads attacking the leader of the Liberal Party in South Australia, Isobel Redmond, who did not deserve to have an advertisement misleading voters about her integrity, and equivalent ads by Labor on the Greens in Tasmania, who likewise have been misrepresented. The important point here is not that Labor is again misrepresenting its opponents but that voters are being misled on their way to the ballot boxes on Saturday by these very nasty advertising tactics by Labor in both South Australia and Tasmania. I would have thought it was time that the government moved for decency and truth in political advertising, and I will have a further motion on that matter tomorrow.