Maybe it was out of juice, or perhaps he couldn’t find the charger, but, for some reason, the timer on Ian Macdonald’s iPad was not working on Tuesday.
Which might explain why Gillian Triggs, the Human Rights Commission president and familiar fixture on the witness list of Parliament’s estimates hearings, gave evidence for nearly six hours beyond her allocated time.
Senate veteran fires up
Liberal Senator Ian Macdonald is known for his interrogations and interruptions and that’s been on full display during fiery Senate hearings.
Things were very different last Friday when Senator Macdonald set his iPad timer to loudly ring every 15 minutes while Solictor-General Justin Gleeson was trying to give evidence over a feud with Attorney-General George Brandis.
In this, as in all things, his wingman, Barry O’Sullivan, had his back.
Arms crossed, jaw set and stare steely, the former cop would lean behind the seat of Coalition colleague Linda Reynolds to confer with Senator Macdonald while the committee chair, Labor’s Louise Pratt, tried to bring a veneer of civility to proceedings.
Macdonald and O’Sullivan are powerful players in the Queensland Liberal National Party. Between them they have held several positions of authority inside the party, including the selection of candidates. Even for the world of politics it is a particularly blokey world. Of the 26 Queensland Coalition MPs, only three are women.
The senators came to politics as veterans of the state’s colourful legal and police world, two fraternities with close ties that know a thing or two about the treatment of witnesses.
Questioning people for sustained periods is a common interrogation technique whether the venue is a courtroom, police station or main committee room of Parliament House.
Witnesses are often broken by a combination of techniques, each designed to work simultaneously to grind down their defences.
Talking over the top of someone, interrupting them and addressing people by the wrong title are all effective, especially when the witness might be weakened by lack of food and comfort breaks, or confused by prolonged exposure to fluorescent light.
All of these were on display on Tuesday when Professor Triggs was called up.
Except she was not „Professor Triggs” to Senator Macdonald, who repeatedly called her „senator” and said she could be one because she could be described as „ill-informed”.
Labor senator Penny Wong intervened and asked him to withdraw his remark. Senator Macdonald declined. An argument ensued as to whether Senator Macdonald was badgering the witness.
Senator Macdonald replied: „It’s typical of the left that when you’re trying to question somebody, they object at every opportunity.”
Earlier in the day Senator Wong called it as she saw it.
You are a bully, that is the reality, she said.
Senator Macdonald threatened to suspend the committee until, as he put it, Senator Wong could play by the rules.
„That means you don’t talk over people, especially the chairman,” he said.
At another point, Senator Macdonald declared: „I won’t have anyone shouting over anyone else. It happens too often in the Senate chamber, it won’t happen in my committee.”
Which must have come as a surprise to Justin Gleeson.
When Mr Gleeson raised Senator Macdonald’s frequent interruptions on Friday the senator shot back: „Oh spare me. You’re not in a court now. You’re in a parliamentary committee hearing that you’ve allowed yourself to be involved in.”
„I always give witnesses the respect they deserve,” Senator Macdonald said later in defence of his style.
Still, things have calmed down since an epic encounter between Professor Triggs and senators Macdonald and O’Sullivan about 18 months ago.
The February 2015 hearing, which focussed on a report Professor Triggs had overseen on the conditions faced by children in Australia’s immigration detention centres, was a fiery affair.
„I thought you might like to hear a man’s voice,” Senator O’Sullivan exclaimed after Professor Triggs had answered several questions from female senators.
That same hearing saw Senator Macdonald step in to defend his wingman from Senator Wong’s assertion that Senator O’Sullivan was bullying and berating Professor Triggs: „Oh dear, oh dear, Penny, settle down.”
And they say chivalry is dead.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/ian-macdonald-and-barry-osullivan-are-these-coalition-senators-the-rudest-men-in-australia-20161019-gs5mcr.html
