Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

What a disgrace. It is bad enough for Labor to treat this Senate like a mug, and to treat the Australian people like mugs, but it looks as if they have the coalition supporting the ramming through of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme tonight—no scrutiny from the public, no scrutiny from experts outside; just a cosy little deal, done between the two major parties, on one of the biggest pieces of legislation the Australian parliament will consider. This will impact on every single Australian, every single small business, everyone in the rural and regional areas, in the bush, and here we are treating the Senate like a mug and also treating the Australian public like mugs.

There is no way that we should be allowing this motion to get through today. We are just training the Rudd government and the Labor management of this chamber, and allowing them to continue to be sloppy in the way they go about their business. Coalition policy was to wait till Copenhagen. That is what they said to the Australian public. They are in danger of risking any economic credibility they had left. The Australian people are not dumb. They know what you folks promise, and they know that we should be waiting to see what the rest of the world does. This is wrong, totally wrong.

I spoke to some people in the coalition yesterday. They were saying, ‘What is going to change?’ They were thinking we could still negotiate this thing through next year; there was no need to rush this thing through—except for political expediency. It is not about policy; it is about politics. It is wrong for this chamber to allow that to happen. This motion goes to the heart of it. I urge the coalition senators to stand up and say no to this motion. There is no way you should be allowing this to go through tonight. There is no way. Don’t train them to be sloppy all the way through to the election. Don’t let them get away with it. They are treating you like a puppet. They are pulling the strings and you are jumping, your hands are going up. Don’t allow them to do it. This is seriously wrong. The public understand this. They are watching. They are not stupid; they understand the nuances. They know what is going on. Don’t allow the government to get away with this motion. This goes to the heart of it. Stand up and be counted and say no to this. This is wrong.