Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion. We know that standing and sessional orders do need to be suspended because, as the member for Fairfax states, this House has to reaffirm the importance of a proper and comprehensive consideration by this House—the people's house, the house of what used to be democracy—of legislation dealing with matters of importance to Australians. If ever there were a matter of importance to Australians, it is this matter.

The Labor government has form when it comes to gagging debate. Indeed, last year, for the first time since I was elected in 2010, they gagged the appropriation bills of all bills to gag. Just recently, in the last sitting week of the Senate, they gagged our senators from speaking about the digital identity bill in the upper house. Now here today, they have gagged the fuel efficiency standard debates. There was a long list of speakers who wanted to speak about the importance of this legislation for and on behalf of their constituents. Many of those members are regional members who will hurt the most from this tax on family cars and utes.

But those opposite don't care about families and farmers. They do not care about families, which are in Struggle Street at the moment. They do not need another Labor tax to impose upon their livelihoods, upon their day-to-day budgets. I appreciate that the member for Rankin stood at that dispatch box the other night and delivered his budget speech, but the important budgets that are being done are around the family living room tables. They are the ones that are being done by families that are struggling to pay for groceries, struggling to pay every time they go to the bowser at the petrol station. Under this, they're going to be struggling even more. They are hurting so much, and that is why the suspension is so important. That is why Labor has to finally concede that, before it came to power, it said: 'Let the sun shine in. Let there be more transparency.' Yet they are gagging debate again and again. This is simply not good enough.

And they're doing it in collaboration with, for and on behalf of the teals. They are a party; let's make no mistake. They're also doing it on behalf of the Greens.

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