Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have to say to my friends from the Palmer United Party that, while I accept your position that you will negotiate whenever you can negotiate and get whatever deal you are able to get, this is not the way to do policy. This is no way to run a government. This is no way to run a country. Australian families deserve better than a government that will sell out anyone and anything to protect the interests of a handful of the richest, most powerful and wealthiest Australians. They are the interests that you have chosen to represent today—not the voices of those who suffered at Timbercorp, those who suffered in Storm Financial or those who suffered in Commonwealth Financial Planning. They are not the voices that you have chosen to represent; you have chosen to represent those of CommBank, AMP and Macquarie Private Wealth—the handful of the wealthiest and most powerful groups in this country. And, once again, Australian families have been sold out.

This is no way to do policy, Senator Cormann. This is no way to run a government. This is no way for us to operate for the next few years—with dirty deals being done dirt cheap at the last minute. Frankly, the Australian people never voted for this and they will never support this. The Australian people deserve better than these kinds of deals that are done to protect a handful of the wealthiest and most powerful Australians. Once again, tonight there will be a group of people—the con men, the sharks and those who have misrepresented and misused the financial services industry—salivating at the prospect that, under you, Minister Cormann, they can return to the bad old days of financial planning. Unfortunately, our friends here in the Palmer United Party have allowed them a vehicle to do that. I can assure you of one thing regarding any deal you think you have with this government: they have very cleverly set a 90-day period, because that takes you beyond the disallowance period, to make sure your leverage has been minimised.

Senator Cormann, time after time in the last government, you would get up and give speeches about process. You talk about how the Senate should be run and you talk about the fact that we should have an Australian Senate that is prepared to have legislation and is prepared to bring things forward. But, once again, you have cowered and you have run away.