Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Heritage, the Arts and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

This should have been a very proud and happy day for the new Kevin Rudd government. Their families and friends were here and we were all sworn in. It should have been a good day. Unfortunately, it is a day of shame for the new government. The embarrassment is palpable in the people yawning over there on the government benches. The member for Leichhardt is doubtless not looking forward to his local media when it is revealed how little interest he really does have in representing his electorate in this place.

What is being suggested is that 20 per cent of our sitting time in the future be without government scrutiny. We have sat for a century—over 100 years now—in Australia as a democracy. This government should be continuing the tradition of the opposition being able to hold the government of the day accountable and to scrutinise it on every day that the parliament is sitting. Instead, it is trying to get away with a cheap and shabby trick of shutting down scrutiny for 20 per cent of government time. Why would this new Kevin Rudd government be so anxious to shut down the role of the opposition in stopping Friday MPIs, quorums, divisions and question time? Because Mr Rudd in particular has already targeted some of the most vulnerable people in Australia—rural and regional Australians—and he does not want the population at large to know. As we have heard time and time again from speakers, it is rural and regional Australians who will suffer most from this proposed new lack of scrutiny. We who represent regional Australia, spending half a day flying to get here, are going to be most disadvantaged on most Fridays in not being able to get home and get back on Sunday. This is a very serious time for regional Australians, already being attacked by Mr Rudd. Let me list what has already been done to them since this government came into office. The government has already abolished the Regional Partnerships grants; it has already cut down exceptional circumstances funding—

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