Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I find it very unusual that we seem to be getting closer and closer to the Greens. We have not seen eye to eye with the Greens on this for the last seven or eight years. We seem to be aligning some of our decisions with them. I have said this before: I suppose that a stopped clock is right twice a day. I find myself in agreement with this amendment. As Senator Barnaby Joyce has pointed out, you can have all the best ideas in the world, and you can have right on your side, but if you do not have the numbers it does not mean one iota. Today we have delivered for the people of the Liverpool Plains and the even more fertile valley of the Breeza Plains. I know there has been a great deal of concern about this in those two areas. Today we have delivered the numbers in the Senate to carry this amendment, and that will give them some sort of satisfaction. I again point out to those people that Independents can do nothing. It is only when you get the full horsepower of the coalition and the Independents or the Greens that you can deliver anything. I would like the people out there to remember that. Anyone can huff and puff, but it is only the numbers that will deliver on these issues.