Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

We won't be supporting the amendments, and there is a range of reasons why. This is a very poorly advised attempt by the Labor Party to tie the director identification number into this bill. They are very worthy measures—those are not my words, but the words of the shadow minister. And to show just how little understanding they have of this issue, Labor's amendments that the shadow minister held up cross-reference to other bills in the broader package of modernising business registers legislation. This means that the law and amendments, as moved by the shadow minister, couldn't actually even be applied as written because they reference legislation that doesn't exist. So when the Labor Party talks about doing their homework and helping the government, what they've done is copied and pasted from the government. But because they have such little understanding there is legislation and other measures referenced here that do not exist.

So under no circumstances can the Labor Party even support their own amendments! They cannot support amendments that refer to legislation that doesn't exist. The reason that has occurred is because the Labor Party, like an undergraduate cheat in an exam, has copied the person next to them without understanding what they were copying! I can inform the shadow minister and the opposition that we will not be supporting these amendments. And I would ask him not to support his own amendments, because his own amendments do not work!

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