Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the further comments from the Nationals senator which show his caring attitude and how far that extends, particularly now that we are not even on students but are on the whole exploitative aspects of this legislation. This is legislation that should not be passed under any circumstances. From what I can see, the Labor senators are not coming in on the debate, which starts to answer the question. I am not sure if it is the correct answer, but you look for answers when you get into these debates and you see such sudden shifts in how parties conduct themselves. Yesterday this legislation was being widely condemned, with detailed speeches from many colleagues from the Labor Party about how problematic it was in so many areas, and now there is silence. I hope I am wrong.

I notice that Senator Kim Carr has just come into the chamber. I think it is very important that they do come in on this debate and explain why Labor has now decided to vote for this legislation. It was voted through in the House of Representatives quite quickly this morning. I will be interested to look at who were the Labor MPs in the House of Representatives who signed that pledge. As some senators have just come into the chamber, I think it is worth repeating because it really highlights the essence of contradiction—that would be one polite word, but you could say betrayal—from Labor with this policy. This is the pledge that Mr Shorten and a number of Labor members of parliament signed:

I, Bill Shorten, pledge that the ALP will block proposed changes to higher education in the senate …

We are now in the Senate. Maybe Mr Shorten could use the excuse that we could not do anything about it in the House of Representatives. We can here. Labor and the Greens can vote together. We can put a good case to the crossbenchers. We can stand up for the people of Australia. We can stand up for Australian students who are out there with very little money trying to do their best, do a bit of work, do their studies, get by and come forward with good marks. But now we have put some real obstacles in their path.

So what is Labor's position? Are we going to hear from Labor on this most important issue? The last speaking list that I saw indicated that that is not going to happen, but it is certainly needed. What has happened here is extraordinary. As I said before, 2 October 2014 is going to be a very dark day in the history of Labor because it is the day in which a monumental deal has been done—a deal between Labor and the coalition to do over so many people. Labor is giving—