Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Just imagine if this was your big policy achievement as Prime Minister—not tax reform, not action on climate change, not any of the things he ever said he believed in. But the one time you get to come in here and say, 'Here's what I can say I've achieved,' it is rorting the Senate vote. That is the achievement. The finance minister does not come in here when they take credit on budget night for doubling the deficit, but the finance minister will come in here after an all-night session and hear the praise of the Prime Minister for the big policy reform of the Turnbull government. They can all go home to their electorates after today knowing, with pride, they have rorted the Senate ballot. They can go back knowing, with pride, that three million votes now get put in the bin, that the three million Australians who choose to vote for the minor parties now will not have their votes counted to any candidate at all who gets represented in the parliament. That is the achievement. That is what they get to take credit for.

Let us also remember why it is that the House has to sit today at all. Why is it that the House has to sit today at all? It is because the Treasurer moved an intelligent amendment when this bill was first introduced—the House suddenly goes silent at the thought of it—because he referred the bill to the parliamentary inquiry. Why did he refer the bill to the parliamentary inquiry? Because it was different from what the committee had previously considered. No matter what claim the Prime Minister makes, it went to a new inquiry. But then the member for Eden-Monaro moved that we had to vote before that committee reported, even though the committee reported before the Senate even began the vote. So, on the complete mess of administration from this government, the only reason the public are paying for us to all be here today is that those opposite decided to have the vote before the committee reported. It is the only reason we are here, the only reason anyone is here.

So the motion in front of us is not actually whether or not the parliament agrees to the bill. The motion in front of us is simply whether or not we agree to the amendments that have been moved in the Senate—amendments which could have gone through the House if the government had not had the abject stupidity of having us vote before it went to the Senate, if they had simply followed the recommendation of the Treasurer and waited for the committee to report. The public has paid for every member of parliament to be here today purely because of the incompetence of this government.

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