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

They forgot to count them. Politics does make for some strange bedfellows, doesn't it. We see a former member of the Communist Party and the coalition stitching up a deal to make sure that every other minor party and Independent cannot come into this place. It is good to watch, isn't it! We even saw The Australian with the little emails for Richard Di Natale's chief of staff saying, 'These are the latest instructions from Senator Lee Rhiannon.'

This is what you are voting for. I hope the coalition know: you have got a deal that has been stitched up with the Greens. And what we will see is this backroom deal, done in secret negotiations, rammed through this parliament. So let us not have any talk from the other side about democracy and the democratic process.

These are the largest changes in 30 years. This bill that has been introduced is not the same as JSCEM considered. I have said and we have said publicly: we are willing to look at issues in this current system, but what we are not willing to do is to participate in a backroom deal that is being rushed through the Senate today.