Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to speak briefly on this amendment. I don't think I agree with the coalition about the reason why they want to split this, in terms of the PRRT. We have different views on the role of the PRRT bill, but I 100 per cent agree with the point that the coalition is making, which is that these are two very distinct issues and this is politics. I'm new to politics; I've been here for less than two years. But this sort of wedging is exactly the sort of problem the Australian people have with politics as usual. This is about political points; it's not really about the issues of the day.

I think these are two really serious issues. One is about an absolute abuse of power that had a huge detrimental impact on Australian taxpayers, and it's a really a serious issue—enormous taxation. The other is about the future of, again, the Australian taxpayers in terms of how they are paid for offshore gas. They are two completely different issues. They shouldn't be in the same bill. There are other ways that the government is perfectly willing to use—guillotining debate and other things—when they want to get stuff done. They had the opportunity to do this. This is pure politics.

See this speech in context