Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

For those who are listening in this chamber and listening elsewhere, we have just had 20 minutes of complete and utter weasel words—softly spoken but complete and utter weasel words. Senator Dastyari and others have had probably 12 months to come up with some solution to this issue—but, no, they have not. This is a disallowance without a fix. This is a disallowance that is completely duplicitous. We know exactly what this is all about. This is about you supporting your mates in the union movement and using what has happened with people in the past to pursue your cheap, philosophical view of life and your support for the Australian Labor Party. I am old enough to remember a song by AC/DC, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. This is a dirty trick, a dirty deed, but it has not been done dirt cheap. This is a dirty trick paid for by the CFMEU and other union leaders, and Senator Dastyari sits there, wrings his hands and his voice softens and he says, 'No fix for this disallowance.'

Not only that but we saw today the most disgraceful intervention in the due process of this Senate that I have seen in the 10 years that I have been here. Senate question time is the opportunity for this government to be questioned and for it to respond accordingly. Halfway through Senate question time today, question time was completely finished. It disenfranchised Senator Day and disenfranchised those that should have had the opportunity to have their voice heard. But it goes further than that. The wringing hands—and I am concerned about this—from Senator Dastyari mark his utter duplicity, and the duplicity of the Australian Labor Party. Guess who has had their voice taken away today with this stunt?