Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Well, all you are offering to do is pass them by next Thursday. Sorry; you are offering to defeat them by next Thursday! Your position is, ‘We need to delay till next Thursday to give us a chance to examine the reasons why we are going to try and defeat it.’

I say to the Senate and particularly to Senator Xenophon and Senator Fielding: look in their eyes. When they urge you in this debate to vote down the bills, remember last December when they ran out for a cup of tea and hid. When the pressure comes on you, will see fear in the eyes. They do not want you to vote down the package. Trust me. They do not want you to vote down the package. Their strategy is to vote no, to be all care and responsibility. But when it comes to the vote, Senator Fielding and Senator Xenophon, if you walk across to join them, they will wet themselves. They will have fear in their eyes. They do not want you to vote the package down. They want to delay; they want to make a political point that they think will serve them in long-term. But if you, Senator Xenophon, or you, Senator Fielding, say you are going to vote for them you will be fascinated by the response. They have taken the position that they are all care and no responsibility—that they can safely say they are going to vote against it in the knowledge that Senator Fielding, Senator Xenophon and the Greens will not do that at the end. It will be interesting to see whether or not, just before the vote, when we eventually get to it, the Liberal and National parties really want you to vote for them. I suggest to you that they are dead scared you might. If you do, you might find Senator Minchin out for a cup of tea and a few of his friends stuck in the toilet, because the last thing they want to do is defeat this package.

This is about vandalism. This is about delaying our responsible plan to assist the economy. But they do not really want it beaten. This is a political point-scoring exercise. I urge the Senate to support the government’s proposition for a change to sitting hours. It will allow the right balance between scrutiny and passage of bills that provide the economic stimulus the country needs. It will ensure we are able to make the payments we want to make to families and that we are able to put in their hands the money that will allow spending and consumption to support jobs. We do not want that put at risk. We are happy for a Senate inquiry, we are happy to take up the option of sitting next week to deal with the other bills. However, I urge you in this debate to think about the bigger picture, to think about what nine days of continued uncertainty will mean for business confidence and about the threat to jobs and the economy if the government’s package is held up and maybe not passed. I urge you to follow a more sensible, balanced view, to support our procedural motion and to give some certainty— (Time expired)