Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I do not quite understand what the minister is saying. This amendment plus No. 11 are seeking to put agribusiness on the same footing as other areas. As yet I am still waiting to hear from the government as to what their logic is in having so much more a restrictive a position in respect of agribusiness than for a whole range of other more sensitive sectors, which I have previously outlined. I am interested in that. I see Senator Smith here—he and others are very happy to write columns for The Australian Financial Review calling for a more open economy, more rational economic debate, less protectionism, less populism. Well, you are going to come in here and vote with the Australian Greens! I hope that you and Senator Seselja and Senator Ryan and a range of others who, I think, call yourselves 'the modest members', who pride yourselves on being the carriers of the Liberal tradition of economic rationalism, are enjoying the fact that you have done a deal with the Greens on economic policy, because that is what you are voting for.