Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to contribute to this matter of public importance proposed by Family First senator Bob Day, who suggested the topic of discussion be 'the rushed changes to voting laws that will extinguish Senate diversity.'

This rushed change to our voting laws is a distraction from the important business of this place. This change is not being driven by the people of Australia. In the time I have been a Tasmanian senator, I have not had one person, not one, come into my office and ask for a change to the Senate voting system. They wanted positive changes and improvements to health, education, social services, veterans' conditions and diggers' pay, and they wanted jobs. It is self-interest which is motivating the Liberals, the Nationals and the Greens. We should be discussing the government's plan to make $650 million worth of cuts to Medicare bulk-billing and all the women's lives that will be endangered by these cuts. That is the issue that everyone who contacts my office is concerned about today, not Senate voting reform.

Just as this Senate voting change has been done by a dirty backroom deal between the Liberals, Greens and Nationals, it is clear that the Liberals, Greens and Nationals will be doing preference deals at the next federal election. A vote for the Liberals and the Nationals will be a vote for the Greens, and a vote for the Greens will be a vote for the Liberals and the Nationals. Who would ever have thought that the political married bliss of the Liberals and Nationals would be disrupted by the Greens climbing into their electoral bed and sneaking under the sheets! Just when Barnaby Joyce thinks he will be Deputy Prime Minister when the Libs win the next election, he finds out that he has competition from the Greens leader. Poor old Barnaby will not know where to sleep—in the middle, on the top or on the bottom! I guess Barnaby will sleep wherever Richard tells him to sleep from here on in!

One of the reasons that the government gives to justify the rushed decision to change Senate voting is the alleged chaos in this chamber. They whine that we stopped $30 billion of government savings. Let us get a few things clear right now. It is not $30 billion of government savings that I have proudly stopped. It was $30 billion of theft by the Liberal-National Party from poor and struggling Australian workers, pensioners and families.

Parliamentary Library research shown to me proves that the total value of cuts in 63 bills presented by the government to this Senate was $62 billion. Of that $62 billion, $30 billion was blocked, as it took money away from poor Australians and struggling families and pensioners. After consultation with crossbench senators, $32 billion of sensible government savings were passed. Of those 63 government bills presented, 73 per cent passed this Senate and 23 per cent were stopped.

This diverse Senate has protected the Tasmanian people from the horrors of the Liberal-National budgets. The people of Tasmania can be protected from the worst excesses of the major parties and get more by voting for the JLN Senate candidates— (Time expired)