Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The reality is: this government sought, when it comes to the car industry, to not only take $500 million out between now and 2015 but provide it with nothing other than uncertainty beyond 2015. In this last week we have seen in this parliament this government sabotaging Holden through the leaking of senior economic ministers, followed by the Treasurer of the country goading Holden and daring them to make a decision, and the Acting Prime Minister demanding that they make a decision ahead of your review. As to why you are doing this today, let everyone be clear: this is a stunt to change the subject. We know that if you had been really serious about managing this debate properly, you would have done so. But you did not. You have mismanaged your program. And instead of Senator Abetz reflecting on the way in which he and the government have managed their program, he comes in here instead to undertake a stunt, to try and show, presumably to the Prime Minister's office and other people: 'No, we are really trying to get it through. We really are.' I think the example was when we had one of their own senators, Senator Macdonald, taking up government business time to move an amendment to one of their own committees and using the debating time to have a go at the Prime Minister's office. Do not come in here and tell us that you have managed your program well. We know what has happened in here. You have mismanaged the program—

Opposition senators interjecting—