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

Hanging around with you too much, Senator Macdonald, has that effect on people. You should start by looking in the mirror if you want to talk about madness.

But let me repeat: the government, after five speakers or so, have yet to make the case for why this was urgent. After five speakers, they have not made the case for why this bill should proceed in the manner that it is being put forward. They have not made the case for why the Senate should be turned upside down, other than the fact that we all know their party room meeting was a shambles this morning. We all know that, sitting in the joint parliamentary committee on electoral reform, I was reading live tweets telling me what Mr Abbott said and what Senator Cormann said. Senator Cormann, in fact, tweeted out of the room. So everyone was paying attention in there. There was sledging backwards and forward. We all knew what was going on. There were Senator Bernardi, Senator Abetz and all of those who wanted to get behind Senator Cormann's undermining of the Treasurer of this country. We all know what this debate is about. You are afraid to bring your real agenda on. You are afraid to reveal your tax policy to the Australian public. You do not want there to be a budget. You do not want to try to govern this country. You do not want to explain what the excesses of negative gearing are—identified on a number of occasions—because you want to hide behind the pretence that this bill is urgent. All of those issues will catch up with you over the coming months. For those in the Greens corner, when that double-D is called on 11 May and held on 2 July, all of the consequences of the filthy deal to sell out their policies and what they believe in will be seen. But the good news is that they will not all be here to realise it. They will be sitting in their homes because they will not be returned.

We know that your attempt today to upturn the Senate procedures to bring on bills that you have not told anyone you are going to bring on and to try to force the Senate to debate something else is not serious. You could prove me a liar. All you have to do is stand up here and say, 'I guarantee you there's no double-D happening. There'll be no election called before or on 11 May.' That is all you have to do to prove me wrong. Those opposite simply have to say, 'Senator Conroy, you're a fool. There's no double-D.' Then the attempt to bring this bill on becomes legitimate. Until you can stand up and promise this chamber and the people of Australia that there is no double-D, you have zero credibility in pretending you are interested in disabled people, good governance in this chamber or even good governance of this country. You are an absolute shambles. Your cabinet leaks. Your finance minister dumps on the Treasurer in public on national television. The Prime Minister, egged on by Senator Cormann, strips him of his portfolio responsibilities. This is a full-scale mugging of the second Treasurer that you have had! You have already tossed one Treasurer overboard!