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

It is disappointing that we have this motion of self-congratulation by the government for the government, when each and every member of this place and the other place supported the bill in its passage. Labor rightly accepted a number of amendments that the coalition put forward in a bipartisan manner to ensure that some of the wrinkles were ironed out. Even a CFMEU publication has recognised my role and that of the coalition. If even the CFMEU could be bipartisan, one wonders why Labor in this place could not. That the government can congratulate itself in circumstances where they cut funding to the asbestos agency before it even started speaks a lot louder than self-serving self-congratulatory motions. In a spirit of bipartisanship, given the importance of this issue, the coalition will overlook the crass politics and not oppose the motion.

Question agreed to.