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

I divert for a second, Mr Deputy President. I table the transcript of Senator Birmingham’s interview today because I thought his personal explanation was disingenuous in the extreme. And, so as to set the record straight, I table the full transcript that I quoted from today. People can make their own decisions about whether Senator Birmingham’s explanation was disingenuous or not, but I am happy for the record to be there. Senator Birmingham, if he claims to be misrepresented next time, ought to be a bit more frank because the full record supports exactly what I said about what he said today. But I digress.

It is interesting that maybe the Liberal Party have now had a rethink about supporting a new ministry of climate change and energy. I was wondering whether Senator Minchin had thought through his agreement to abandon his Energy portfolio as part of his responsibilities, to be demoted to only being the shadow minister for resources. I would have thought that would be a fairly large fall in status for the senator. I wondered whether he was going out there to industry to explain how the Liberal Party now supported the Energy portfolio being part of a climate change department rather than being connected to Resources. I am sure the mining industry and the energy industry were very interested in this development from the Liberal Party in supporting this Greens’ motion.

This is nonsensical, this is poorly drafted and it reflects an attempt to try to get into the public debate in a way that does the Greens and the Liberal Party a disservice. The seriousness the Liberal Party are showing in relation to this is reflected in their lead speaker. As I understand it, their lead speaker in this censure motion will be a shadow parliamentary secretary, Senator Birmingham. I am sure he will do his case justice, but, quite frankly, if you are serious about a censure, you do not send in a shadow parliamentary secretary. I have never, ever heard before of a serious censure in this parliament that has not been supported by the leader of the government or the Leader of the Opposition, and to send in the shadow parliamentary secretary says you are not dinkum.