David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Hansard source

I indicate my support for Senator Moore's motion and my opposition to the government's amendment. I think I probably qualify as a preference whisperer. I think a preference whisperer is somebody who actually understands how the system works. Those who do not know how the system works want to change it. I know who the preference whisperers are for the Labor Party, for the Greens, for the minor parties and, yes, indeed, for the Liberals. They are the ones who ring me up when I am doing preference deals for my party and say, 'Would you like to do a deal on preferences?' I can name names, if you would really like me too. I can name the names of the other preference whisperers.

Every party has a preference whisperer. It is all done in backrooms. It is all done on the phone. It is not done in the glare of public light. Every party does preference deals. When Bob Brown was elected to this Senate he was elected in Tasmania as a result of a preference whisperer. It resulted in the Democrats votes going to Bob Brown and the Greens winning in Tasmania instead of the Labor Party. That is how it works. The point about it, of course, is that we are debating how much time the committee should take to understand what is being proposed. The assumption that even the government knows what it is proposing seems to me to be contradicted by the evidence. The evidence would suggest that they do not know.