Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

Oh, it has got a signature too, now? So it is a done deal. You have lost out, Senator Birmingham. Last week you told me you were hoping that we were going to progress this legislation through as per the arrangement that had been put in place to provide the certainty in the industry that Labor had provided. But, no, another red herring was created to appease the crossbench. Despite Senator Brandis leading the government in the Senate today and yesterday and saying that he did not know a deal had been done with the crossbench; he did not know a wind farm commissioner was going to be put in place; he had no idea about it. He was just the leader of the government in the Senate, yet he had no idea. In fact, it had been done whilst you and I were debating this legislation in this place last week—while you were filibustering with your Senate colleagues so the deal could be done. Unbelievable!

At the same time, we know it was not very long ago that millions of dollars were ripped out of the Human Rights Commission in this country, that a full-time disability discrimination commissioner was axed in this country by the same current acting leader of the Senate, Senator Brandis. And now, to appease a couple of crossbenchers, we have the creation of a whole new commissioner, a commissioner for wind farms, to tack on to a renewable energy target scheme. This was never part of what we were debating in this place last week. The way this government operates is absolutely shameful. It shows very clearly its distaste and dislike—as the Prime Minister has said on Alan Jones' program, and as Joe Hockey has said a number of times—for wind energy, despite wind energy providing an incredible boost to renewable energy jobs, to renewable energy investment, to a clean energy future. In fact, my home state of Tasmania provides 40 per cent of Australia's renewable energy.