Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate notes the Prime Minister’s continued unprincipled attacks upon the Senate.

The Labor Party’s continued unprincipled attacks on the Senate are regrettable. The Senate is a vital part of Australia’s parliamentary democratic framework, which is in fact the envy of the world. Some would say the Senate should be thankful for small mercies because we have not been spoken about in the same way as the Chinese officials in Copenhagen. But when a Prime Minister speaks to demean the Senate in the way this Labor Prime Minister has and this Labor government has, the Australian people need to simply ask a one-word question: why? The answer is that the Prime Minister and his government are desperately thrashing around, drowning in a self-made quagmire of incompetence and duplicity. So as the Prime Minister and his government’s collective head is sinking beneath the surface, they thrash around desperately thinking that unprincipled attacks on the institutions of this parliament, namely the Senate, will somehow provide them with an electoral lifebuoy by distracting the Australian people from their self-made fiascos. I have a message for Labor: attacking the Senate will not be a lifebuoy, but working with us could in fact have been a lifebuoy. Let us have a look at what the Prime Minister has been saying. Just this week he has said about the Senate:

So we have a very simple message for the Senate, which is get out of the road, guys, just get on with it.

The following day he said about the Senate:

No delays, no stuffing around, get on with it.

Mr Albanese was trotted out as well to say:

… the Senate is being so obstructionist …

They are the lines. It is a wonder that Labor have not in fact been reflecting and saying, ‘Isn’t it a pity that we haven’t in fact listened to the Senate more.’ If Labor would have listened to the coalition in this place, they would not have wasted the $78 million they did on that cash splash by sending it overseas. The Building the Education Revolution would not be wasting billions and billions of dollars on overpriced buildings. We would not have the $850 million blow-out on solar panels. We would not have the Green Loans debacle. And we would not be having house fire after house fire all around Australia courtesy of the pink batts debacle. Indeed, if Mr Rudd would have reflected more seriously, he would have realised that the Senate, and in particular the coalition, had saved him from the debacle that Fuelwatch would have been. Do Labor still seriously say Fuelwatch is part of their policy agenda. No, they do not talk about that at all anymore. And I am sure that privately they say, ‘Thank goodness for the coalition for knocking off that debacle.’

I am sure they say exactly the same thing about GROCERYchoice. Remember that wonderful scheme where consumers would be able to compare prices. In my home state of Tasmania the state was divided into various sections and you could compare the price of groceries in Strahan in the one region with Swansea. One is firmly placed on the west coast of Tasmania, namely Strahan, and Swansea is firmly placed on the east coast of Tasmania.