Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

and put his own head of the Public Service in charge of it. It is relevant, Senator Macdonald, because your government is trying to hide the fact that it is calling a double-D. This is not an urgent bill, and it is not an urgent bill because of all the other things that have been going on in this chamber, which you are party to. You are the party that has gone to the Greens and stitched up a deal to do Senate reform and purge all crossbench senators. Tragically, they did not work out that you are actually going to call a double-D on them and they are actually going to purge themselves. Senator Siewert, it was nice. I have had a lot of fun with you in the chamber, but you are not coming back after a double-D, and there are a couple more of you to go as well.

What we saw today in a joint parliamentary committee hearing about Senate electoral reform, which goes to the heart of this debate, is that Mr Antony Green, the great advocate on behalf of Senator Rhiannon, actually confessed for the first time that the Liberals will get 38 senators in a double-D.