Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I said 'Mr Abbott', in fact, for those of the opposition who are listening. They are not listening to the debate. They only want to say no on this issue.

I will deal with some of the substantive matters that the opposition have raised. In a debate such as this, it is incumbent on those opposite to actually construct an argument and to come to the debate with clean hands. Let us look at the record of the opposition when they were in government:

There was also one circumstance where:

… Australian Democrats Senator Andrew Bartlett had to debate Telstra legislation he had not seen and comment on the minister's second reading speech that had not been read to the parliament and had been tabled only 30 seconds before.

Those quotes are on page 80 of the essay 'The Senate a paper tiger', in the book Howard's Fourth Government: Australian Commonwealth Administration 2004-2007. In addition to that:

… Work Choices legislation was given to non-government senators only half an hour before the debate began, and consideration of the 1252-page bill was compressed into a five-day committee inquiry and five days of Senate debate … amendments were introduced by the government just 35 minutes before the government guillotined debate.

That is what the opposition has stood for. This government created a Multi-Party Climate Change Committee that met for nine months on this issue before completing its work in July The opposition were invited to participate on the committee but chose not to because they simply want to say no. They have no policy; they simply want to continue to be obstructionist and say no, rather than engage in debate. (Time expired)