Sophie Scamps (Mackellar, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

The Australian people are losing trust in the major parties, with a full third of them directing their votes outside of a major party at the last election. It is because of conduct like this—the hoodwinking of the Australian people by rushing legislation through parliament in the last sitting week of the year, critical legislation that goes to the heart of our democracy, and refusing to expose it to the sunlight and scrutiny of an inquiry, doing a backroom deal with the other major party to entrench their own positions—that the Australian people will continue to abandon them. They are being abandoned because of conduct like this.

One last observation is that the government has many times as a justification for introducing these reforms said that we don't want to become like America. But I would suggest that in one critical respect this is exactly what this reform will do. By creating an unfair playing field and locking out new entrants because of that, the legislation will actually lock in the dominance of the two major parties for decades to come. We will have nothing but blue and red to choose from and very little else, just like has happened in America. With a duopoly, we are at risk of greater polarisation.

What our democracy does need is more voices, more debate, more scrutiny and more competition. That's what we need in our parliament. So let's do better. I urge the government to send this bill for further scrutiny. (Time expired)

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