Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens are not going to stand by and see this game being played. We know it for what it is. In fact it is a waste of the Senate's time. It is half an hour that you could be spending on the business of the Senate or half an hour bringing on an urgency debate about the big issue of Holden closing down in this country and the future of manufacturing. That would have been a useful thing to do for half an hour of the Senate's time, not half an hour of this fake and false debate, as I said, just covering up for the fact that we know that the ministers' officers are all ready to go and leave here the minute that the Senate finishes. So we will not be supporting this motion. We think they should be talking about the things the country wants to talk about, and that is how we future-proof the nation for these manufacturing industries leaving us.