Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

We have had interjections from Senator Sterle. I have had a look at the speakers list and I cannot see Senator Sterle’s name on there. So he is happy to sit in here and throw a bit across the chamber, but he does not have the intestinal fortitude to put his name down to debate it. After all the crocodile tears we have seen shed by the Australian Labor Party over the last decade about the role of the Senate and the ability of the Senate to scrutinise the actions of government, what did we see today? They tried to ram it through without any scrutiny from the body that for 10 years they said was being stymied by the former government. It is probably the most hypocritical action I have ever seen in my life. They try to gag the debate; they will not stand up and put themselves on the line to debate it. What an extraordinary outcome and how incredibly duplicitous those people are.