Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Democrats have not even turned up, Senator Abetz. I am meant to be the last speaker on this motion, and I have shot up the list because the Democrats have not turned up for the debate. The last speaker, Senator Ludwig, the Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate no less, who should be the most outraged, had his head down and read the speech word for word. Obviously someone else wrote it. The hyperbole was quite unbelievable, even for Senator Ludwig. Some of that hyperbole was beyond the pale. It was only matched by his leader, Mr Beazley, who said, ‘This is one evil action.’ Can anyone believe that a potential Prime Minister would reserve such a word—the word ‘evil’—for this issue?

How pathetic! Talk about losing the plot! For those who are listening on broadcast, I would like to outline what exactly we are debating today, about which Mr Beazley used the term ‘evil’. That is desperate. That must be embarrassing for you on the other side. We are debating today a motion to refer a matter to the Procedure Committee. It might surprise those listening to this debate on broadcast that, in fact, the government support this motion. We accept this motion to refer a matter of Senate restructure to a committee. We have no objection to that. I would have thought that that was the first test of scrutiny and accountability. I think you can tick us for that one; I think we have passed it. We are accepting that this matter of Senate reform or restructure—or damnation, as you would have it—be referred to the Procedure Committee. I wonder if Senator Ray is on that committee.