Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

After listening to that contribution just then from Senator Brown and the one earlier from Senator Hanson-Young, I am distressed by the level of hypocrisy that is being displayed in this chamber. In respect of this bill, it is a serious issue—and we know that—but this chamber has been debating serious bills all week—or, in fact, I should say it has not been debating serious bills because we have not been allowed to even have a word of discussion about them! Why is that? Because the Greens have continually supported the guillotine or the gagging of debate on important bills.

I raise this because I want the people of Australia to know, and I want this chamber to know, about the hypocritical behaviour that is being displayed by the Greens. Earlier today, when a genuine inquiry was made as to how long this committee stage on this bill was going to take, the answer from Senator Hanson-Young was 'until you gag us'. What a shameful display by these appendages to the government who have stifled debate all week on important bills and yet they are insisting upon making spurious points off the minister until they are gagged. This is their attempt to reclaim the high moral ground from which they fell many, many moons ago. The people of Australia need to know this and the government needs to know this as well, that we have been played off a break by a manipulative and deceptive group of people who are seeking to twist and contort things, in their disgraceful application of double standards, in a manner by which to make a complete mockery of democracy in this chamber.

I would say to you, Mr Chairman, and to my colleagues here that we have to make a decision about what is applicable in these circumstances. We have a circumstance whereby a party has stopped us from having debate next week in order to suit themselves, we have a circumstance where a party have gagged debate on important bills because they wanted to get out of here to go to Durban and now we have a circumstance where a genuine filibuster is taking place. There is no merit to this, and I know there is no merit to it because I was told earlier that they are going to stay here until we gag them. That is a filibuster. It does not contribute to the debate. It is once again a demonstration of the rank hypocrisy that is so evident on so many occasions by the party to my left. It is a travesty. We expect others to abide by the rules.

I do not like seeing the gagging of debate—I have to tell you that—but there are other issues about time management which we have to work through. I said earlier today that we had three sitting days next week to explore this, which the Greens did not want because they wanted to take their first-class flights to Durban—and that is the guts of it. It interfered with their travel plans, so they wanted to stop the parliament from having its scheduled days, and now, after a week of being exposed to the despicable actions that have taken place at their behest and their insistence, we now have their attempt to claim the high moral ground by making others gag them. Let me tell you that, as unfortunate as I find it, it is time for these people to be exposed for what they are. It is time to let the Australian people, many of whom are interested in these proceedings, know, so that they can find this out, that the party which purports to represent the interests of parts of Australia and which purports to represent the interests of the environment is only interested in themselves. It is a party that has self-interest at its very heart and after a week of stopping others from speaking they now want to talk to their heart's content.

This is a travesty. This offers an exposure that needs great ventilation right across this great land because the Greens are now manipulating our democracy and they are silently stifling dissent—anything that they do not agree with. Quite frankly, I agree with this bill. I think this bill is a very important bill that needs to be passed as soon as possible so that the government can get on with their actions. We have unequivocally given our endorsement to this bill. So that is the point that I want to raise: it is the will of this chamber to pass this bill and there is no-one more open to free speech than me for other people to explore the issues, but not when they are taking advantage of the Australian people.

The Greens are a party that apply to themselves rules that are different from the rules that they apply to other people. They apply to themselves standards that are different from those that they apply to others. To her credit, I will say that Senator Rhiannon does not want corporate fundraising, but the rest of the Greens Party apply different rules as to fundraising perspectives than for themselves. We know that and we know that Senator Bob Brown has already been referred to Privileges, but we also know that he sought to raise money to alleviate some legal bills under some sort of spurious circumstances, but of course that goes above—