Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, could I indicate that the motion has actually been amended and is not in the same form as was debated last week. Can I turn to the arguments put forward by Senator Abetz. This is a government that has trampled on every single convention that you can imagine. It has called royal commissions to pursue its own nasty political vendettas. We have had a waste of taxpayers' money that will be over $100 million by the time they are all finished. We have had two royal commissions with no other purpose than to try to smear, abuse and vilify the former governments. This is a government that knows no decent bounds whatsoever. Do you want to know what the final arbiter of that decision would be? Even former Prime Minister John Howard has said, 'I wouldn't have called those royal commissions.' When Senator Abetz stands up here and talks about the decent and right thing to do—