Nationals’ Senator, Senator Barnaby Joyce, today expressed concern that Australians will be misled by the latest ads concerning the balance in the Senate.

“The Greens and Labor have joined with the Democrats in a campaign for the so called ‘restoration’ of balance in the Senate.

“Lets look at the individual records of how this balance and good judgment is exercised:

“The Labor Party is the personification of the complete centralist party, which does not tolerate any form of questioning of decisions in the Senate by its own members.

“The last Senator to cross the floor for Labor was Senator George Georges of Queensland in 1987 and he was immediately expelled. I would have hardly put that on my calling card as balanced, in fact, it gets pretty close to absolutism.

“The Greens, who go forth as ‘holier than thou’, also seem to have agreed in unison to everything they have done since 2004. The purpose of the Senate is to review and amend legislation and represent the rights of the state and there appears to be very little that either Labor Senators or Green Senators do except represent the rights of the centralist executives of their party.

“In essence this is the greatest defrauding of the process of the Senate.

“In reviewing legislation, Senator Brown can hardly stick his hand up as an involved committee member and his record speaks for itself in how much time he spends in committee work: Senator Brown is not a voting member of any Senate Committee.

“No one from the Labor Party has even managed to have a different view, in any of the committees, to the view they were told to have by the Labor Party executive. These processes in the Senate are not a manifestation of someone who can claim to be an independent arbiter in holding the so called ‘balance of power’. In fact it would preclude them from having any respect for the Senate at all.

“One can reflect on the inquiry into the Australia Card when Liberal Party Senator’s have respected their role as Senator’s in clearly defining areas of concern that lie contrary to the view of the Liberal Party Minister. Certainly the National Party have also had Senators who do their job in discerning the problems of legislation irregardless of the political ilk of the department that this legislation comes from.

“This current act by the Labor Party, The Greens and the Democrats is deceitful in that it appeals to the voter that they will be more independent in their arbitration of legislation. The reality and their record speaks for itself. They would be far worse and they will only reflect the desire of their executives and will follow these instructions absolutely and without question to the expense of the Australian constituency.” Senator Joyce said.