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

Never before in the history of the Senate have the provisions of the standing orders been so abused under this new Kevin Rudd government. It was bad enough under the Julia Gillard government, but it is even worse under Mr Rudd. Today we have had a motion rammed through dealing with changes to the Privileges Committee, which is the most important committee of this place, which makes recommendations in relation to penalties to be imposed on senators. Just as these tax bills will be guillotined in a matter of 17 minutes, so these people opposite—the Greens-Labor alliance—have guillotined a decision in relation to the most important committee of this place.

Honourable senators will recall that, during question time this week, I asked the now deposed Leader of the Government in the Senate whether any deal had been done with the Australian Greens to get their agreement, their connivance, to move this unprecedented guillotine of over 55 bills this week. Senators will also recall that, in the term of the Howard government, 2004-07, when we had a majority in the Senate, only 32 bills in three years were guillotined. Here this week the Senate is being abused, with 55 bills being guillotined.

But not content with guillotining bills through this place, those opposite—the Labor Party—are now doing the dirty work for the Australian Greens, sponsoring Greens' motions as government business. So we had to have the pantomime of the Thespian Senator Bob Carr, at question time, claiming to attack the Greens. What a pathetic act that was, when we now see the dirty, sleazy deals that are done behind closed doors, away from the microphones. When I asked Senator Conroy, 'Can you give an assurance that no deal has been done with the Greens in relation to the guillotine?' he studiously avoided the question. He did not deny the allegation. We now know why. It is because the government has agreed to sponsor this outrageous motion that will set in train a system for the Privileges Committee on the very last day of this parliament.

What is the urgency? Nobody can tell us. What is the urgency to put this in the standing orders to give the Greens a permanent position on the Privileges Committee? There is no answer other than that it is the basis of a dirty sleazy deal. So on the very last day of this parliament there are the Australian Labor Party and the Greens: they may have publicly ripped up the marriage certificate, but they are still co-habiting and behaving exactly as they want. It is a raw abuse of the power of this place.

Here we are debating a tax bill and the whole Senate is given less than 20 minutes to discuss its provisions. Then, after that, we will have another 11-plus bills—guillotine, guillotine, guillotine.

And I say to the empty press gallery: it is a disgrace. But I will give one compliment to the ABC, because we are being broadcast courtesy of the ABC, and so some people in Australia will get to understand the gross hypocrisy of some of the scribes in the press gallery who wrote column after column after column condemning the Liberal and National Party majority in the Senate for the outrage against democracy for forcing 32 bills through the Senate. Where are their fingers on the keyboards when this disgraceful Greens-Labor alliance guillotines not 32, not 64, not 96 but 216 bills, and then rorts the Privileges Committee to boot on the very last day of the parliament? They are trying to future-proof the position of the Greens and the Labor Party in the event that the Australian people decide to change the government. This is raw abuse. The Australian people need to understand that the so-called country Independents in the other place did nothing against this raw abuse and nor did the Greens. Indeed, the Greens were active participants.

So the question for the Australian people at the next election will be a very simple one: whom do you trust to safeguard the role of the Senate as a house of review, to have the checks and balances in place on its powerful Privileges Committee and to respect the role of the Senate? The Liberal and National parties are clearly the best custodians of the role of the Senate. The Greens and the ALP have been shown to be the exact opposite. An unprecedented number of bills have been guillotined throughout this parliament—over 200. This week alone there were 55 bills—in one week, one and a half times the number of bills that the Howard government did in three years. Am I saying that the guillotine should never be used? Of course not. All this argument is about is a sense of proportion, a sense of decorum and a sense of decency. What we know about those opposite is that those qualities mean nothing to them. They are completely foreign to them. If you have the numbers you use them.

What better example do we have other than your newly elected leader, who said to the people only months ago: 'I am a man of integrity and of my word. I will not challenge for the leadership.' You know why he was a man of integrity at that time? It was because he did not have the numbers. But as soon as he had the numbers: 'The Australian people demand it of me.' And so he breaks his solemn promise to the Australian people. What is more with those opposite, we have now seen the faceless man Bill Shorten becoming the two-faced man, with blood on both hands. This is the morality of the government. This is the standard of the government. Well may they change their leader, because they have not changed their morality, they have not changed their decency and they have not changed their respect, or disrespect I should say, for this place. It is situation normal, just with a different face: a bloke wearing a blue tie—whatever that might mean.

The role of the Senate is vital in our federal system of government; it is one of the vital checks and balances. One of the good-news stories is that, if the Liberal and National parties were to one day gain a majority in the Senate, we would actually allow our members to cross the floor and represent their states. In this parliament have you ever seen the Greens, who claim to be quasi-Independents, split? Have they ever crossed the floor?