Senator WALTERS (Tasmania) - Perhaps I can throw some light on this situation. Perhaps we can look at the performance in the ranks of the Opposition compared with the performance in the ranks of the Government. This may throw some light on the reason why the Opposition believes that there should be so much intrigue on this side of the chamber. From a distance, we have watched the intrigue going on between the Right and the Left in the ranks of the Opposition. The intrigue is evidenced when honourable senators opposite come into this place. We watch them bowing and scraping to the Left- walking that tightrope. One day they are fairly moderate and the next day they are bowing to the Left in their questions and speeches in this place.

Senator Messner - Remind us of what was done to Vince Martin last weekend.

Senator WALTERS -On this side of the chamber we do not have a right wing and a left wing on our Party. We have unity. It is something that Opposition senators do not understand at all. They do not understand the meaning of the word 'unity'. They do not understand the meaning of the word 'loyal '. They cannot imagine how the National Country Party senators can sit on this side of the chamber with Liberal Party senators. They cannot understand the meaning of the word 'loyalty ' whatsoever.

On this side of the chamber we have two parties. We have the National Country Party and the Liberal Party. We are content to sit on this side of the Chamber in complete unity and with complete loyalty. It is quite beyond the imagination of Opposition senators that Liberal Party senators will stand up in this place and talk on behalf of National Country Party Ministers. It is beyond their imagination. They could not presume to think that they could live in peace with the Left and the Right. When the Honourable Frank Steward died we had a most extraordinary occurrence in this Senate. I met that man very briefly. He was an incredibly nice man. I knew him briefly when we were both on the Joint Select Committee on the Family Law Act. I believe that he was one of the nicest people I had met in this Parliament. We had the extraordinary position of honourable senators opposite saying: We disagreed with his politics, but all the same he was a very nice person'. You will never hear those sorts of statements from this side of the chamber.

On this side of the chamber there is unity and loyalty which could never be found on the other side. No wonder Opposition senators think that this matter is one of intrigue. That is all that they have been born and bred on. They do not know anything else. This perhaps throws some light on the reason why they think that one Minister is being sacrificed and the other is not. I am quite sure that people reading today's Hansard, if they bother to read further than the commencement of this debate, would not imagine that the Opposition is so divided within its ranks that it believes that the natural thing in politics is that there must be intrigue behind every statement. The fact that a Minister stands up here and apologises for a mistake and a Minister in another place has said: I am sorry. Because of a slight hearing difficulty, I misheard the question, ' is quite completely beyond the imagination of the Opposition. Honourable senators opposite cannot believe that it could be a simple mistake. They believe there must be intrigue, because that is what they live and breath, and are bred on. I am ashamed that we have in this chamber the sort of debate we have just seen in this place.

Question resolved in the affirmative.