Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am not making a partisan point, and you know all about dying in government! But I do want to go back to the overall point from Senator Muir here because this is an amendment from Senator Muir. I want to acknowledge the history of both major political parties and our resolve to tackle these kinds of issues. It has not been as strong as it should have been, and we are better off by having people like Senator Muir, who are able to hold our feet to the fire on some of these matters. Him having the balance of power on legislation like this has the potential to make this a better place and to push major political parties to make sometimes tough decisions that are sometimes easier for them not to make. I congratulate him on that and say again that the Greens will not be voting with us on this.

I believe Senator Whish-Wilson is quite genuine in his opposition to grandfathering. I believe he ideologically does believe it is the wrong thing. I share that view with him. But I believe he also—