Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Joyce opposite says, ‘Jobs.’ What is he going to do about the 33,000 jobs on the Great Barrier Reef? Where is his program for ameliorating this massive assault on one of the great wonders of the world with all the jobs that are consequent on that? He has no answer. All he wants to do is to continue to fire the problem.

One of the great problems here is the failure of the democratic system. Yes, $10 billion was announced by the government recently without even reference to cabinet. It is not only a failure of triple bottom line accounting; it is a failure of proper vetting by the democratic system. This government is making its decisions in the Prime Minister’s office—massive decisions which are muddle-headed and not thought through—without reference to the cabinet, without reference to the House of Representatives and without reference to the Senate. We would be getting far better outcomes if this parliament were treated as the centre of democracy and review that it once was before this government got the numbers to treat both houses of parliament as a rubber stamp. (Time expired)