Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Johnston says 'I wouldn't know.' Yesterday we saw ignorance from senior government ministers about the Parliamentary Budget Office and its statement related to the budget. We saw complete ignorance about the likely blow-out of the PPL—the Prime Minister's champion program. We saw ignorance of that. At the last session, and most related to this motion, we saw concern from Senator Brandis for bigots' rights—not a broader concern that one might expect from a competent Attorney-General but a narrow concern with the issues of the rights of bigots. On another side, though, fortunately, we did see a backflip with respect to the National Security Legislation Monitor. This was a very good thing, because if we are going to act competently on national security then we need the provisions and the balance to secure the protections in that system as well.

During the break we saw some astounding stunts. We saw that Senator Brandis needs to lift his head out of his books for a while and understand exactly what metadata is—and that is probably highlighted by the vote we just saw a moment ago. There is an astounding, surprisingly strong level of support from the Senate for better action with respect to metadata. better transparency and a more competent response. And we saw, of course, Senator Abetz and his need to be more careful in his expressions about breast cancer.

These were the Bs: we saw the budget chaos; we saw the concerns for bigots' rights; we saw Senator Brandis's fetish with his books, rather than the important issues of the day; and we saw clumsy expressions around important issues to do with breast cancer. I could go on to the Cs; I could talk about Mr Hockey's understanding about who uses cars; or I could talk about the commentary about who should be a future Senate leader. There have been suggestions, similar to my own musings, that Mathias Cormann is starting to show some signs of interest in Senate procedure. The leadership in this place, in recent times, has been astounding. But there are more serious matters for me to address. It is good to see that Senator Smith has arrived for his lengthy contribution to this debate, although I must say I am saddened that his will be the only government contribution to this debate. This government has chosen to hide yet again. They have put their full 20 minutes on to Senator Smith. I hope you are up to that burden—