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

The New Tax System, for example, the GST, as far back as 1998—when you had a chance. That legislation ought not to have been shunted off to the references committee, and that is one of the prime examples. The migration bills are another example where you have shunted off legislation to references committees. And it is done for one single reason: so you can bring down a report that favours the opposition. That is taking a politically opportunist approach to the report simply to grab a headline. Now that we have the majority, you equate our majority and acting out our mandate and program with arrogance. But we are simply carrying out our mandate. Now that we have the majority, there is no proper reason why you should hold the chairs, given the point that you have abused them endlessly and will continue doing so. The exaggeration and hyperbole is exampled by the Labor Party’s pathetic leader’s description of what this change is, when he called it ‘evil’. What an absurdity!