Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

Is this not a classic example of the Australian Labor Party having failed in its question time tactics? Here we are as a government, with the Minister for Defence having beaten a hasty retreat from Sydney to ensure that he is here to be able to answer any questions that the opposition might have in relation to the defence needs of our nation, not to be asked a single question by those opposite because they are seeking, yet again, to abuse the standing orders of this place by ensuring that question time will be subverted in a manner which will deny Family First Senator Bob Day the question that I understand he may have had for today.

Senator Kim Carr interjecting—

And Senator Carr interjects with 'good'. I am glad that is now on the Hansard. Thank you, Senator Carr—

Senator Sterle interjecting—

and Senator Sterle. The Labor Party speak, Senator Day. Make no mistake about where they stand in relation to your position in this place.

What the Labor Party are seeking to do is to force through the disallowance of a regulation because they are scared that the numbers will not stick in the event that the senators who have changed their minds might change them back again to where they were, not once but twice over a four-month period in this place—senators who had supported the regulations on the basis that they were sound, on the basis that they got the right balance, on the basis that they looked after a sector which employs the most Australians and looks after a huge number of Australian investors, getting the balance right after five years of uncertainty presided over by the Australian Labor Party and Greens government. For five years there was uncertainty, and Senator Cormann, to his great credit, as Minister for Finance, was able to bring that uncertainty to a conclusion and come to a result which provided balance—a balance that was being sought by the financial planners of this country and by the investors of this country.

On this regulation that is being sought to be disallowed by the Australian Labor Party today, I ask: why the urgency? Where is the urgency? This matter could be dealt with next week in the normal course of events. So why the urgency? It is very obvious. Labor and the Greens are concerned, no doubt, that the two senators who wisely supported the amendments previously may no longer be of the view that these regulations should be disallowed. I say to those two crossbenchers in particular that the regulations that you are seeking to disallow have in them very detailed requirements and regulations that the Labor Party actually agrees with and I think everybody in this chamber agrees with. Why is that? It is because Senator Cormann did such a marvellous job at crafting those regulations to ensure that these things were to the benefit of the Australian people.

Senator Conroy interjecting—

Senator Kim Carr interjecting—