Senate Proceedings - Order of Production of Documents and Suspension of Senator Di Natale
Channel: Australian Parliament Fan
Date: 2020-02-12

On 27 November 2018, during debate on a motion relating to an order for the production of documents relating to Menindee Lakes, Leader of the Greens Senator Richard Di Natale was suspended from the Senate until the end of that day's sitting for refusing to withdraw unparliamentary remarks directed at Senator Barry O'Sullivan after Senator O'Sullivan made an unparliamentary comment. 

The matter was put to a division which was passed. Senators Wong, Hanson-Young, Fifield, Hanson, and Siewert then made statements, by leave, in relation to the suspension.

The motion for the order of production of documents debated, which was not read aloud in the video, reads as follows:

     1) The Senate notes that:
          (a) Menindee Lakes are the water source for irrigators, graziers, riparian land owners and communities in the lower Darling River valley;
          (b) Menindee Lakes are culturally imperative to Aboriginal people, including the Barkandji as native title owners;
          (c) water levels in Menindee Lakes have a direct financial relationship with property values and businesses in the lower Darling River valley;
          (d) Menindee Lakes were at full capacity in 2014 and late 2016;
          (e) releases from Menindee Lakes in the 2013-14 and 2016-17 water years by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority have emptied the Lakes twice in 3 years;
          (f) environmental water was released from Menindee Lakes in the 2016-17 water year; and
          (g) Menindee Lakes are currently at 7% storage capacity.

     (2) That there be laid on the table by the Minister representing the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, by 30 November 2018, all documents and correspondence, including meeting minutes, relating to:
          (a) releases from Menindee Lakes between 1 May 2013 and 28 February 2014; and 1 December 2016 and 31 December 2017; and
          (b) environmental watering releases from Menindee Lakes between 1 December 2016 and 31 December 2017.

Senator Di Natale is the first senator to have been suspended since former Leader of the Greens, Bob Brown, who was suspended on 6 March 2003 for refusing to withdraw accusations of blackmail by Prime Minister John Howard. Senator Bob Brown and Senator Kerry Nettle were named and suspended by the Speaker of the House, Neil Andrews, on 23 October of the same year during a joint sitting where President George W. Bush addressed the Parliament.

The transcript of these proceedings can be found here: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard/Hansard_Display?bid=chamber/hansards/b44abdde-c043-4c42-9814-1dbd96168cf3/&sid=0000

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