Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

At a time when trust in our democracy is at dangerously low levels, today we witness a government shutting down democracy. I came to this place to represent the people of Dunkley. I came to this place so their voices could be heard. Today, a so-called ensuring integrity bill was rammed through this parliament without a word of debate—with no chance for any single person in the electorate of Dunkley to talk to me about their views on this bill, and no chance for me to stand up and put their views to this place. This government is supposed to be a Liberal government. It's supposed to stand up for traditions, for conventions, but it just trashes them.

We need better democracy in this place. There are real, important, serious issues for the future that young people want us to address, and we can't when we have a government that doesn't care about democracy. It just cares about winning and being in power. It is sad for the future of this country when this government isn't brave enough to defend itself. If you don't like the motions that the Leader of the Opposition puts forward, why don't you mount a defence? Is it because you don't have one? This is a disgrace to democracy, and it is something that we should be ashamed of in this country—that we have a government that won't stand up and debate.

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