Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I will be very brief, and I thank Senator Abetz for his response to my question. I have no problem at all with the opposition voting against this bill. I think it is irresponsible and politically self-defeating, but it is entirely their right to come in here and vote against it. But Senator Abetz must have a pretty warped idea of the notion of scrutiny if this is what he calls scrutiny. This is filibuster; this is a complete waste of the chamber’s time. I will merely wait until I get the opportunity to put my amendments, and I guess we will see a number of other coalition senators giving us the benefit of their views. All I would say, on behalf of everybody who may well be listening in with some sense of disbelief as to what on earth it is that the national parliament is debating, is that we have approximately 20 pages of amendments to get through and the coalition has tied us down for five or six hours on the first two. Can we just stop wasting time and get on with the substantive debate?