Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Payments) Share this | Hansard source

There is a bit of sensitivity there. We should go back and look at what Senator Rhiannon actually said. She talked about the Greens not doing deals on preferences. Nobody requires you to go and do a deal on preferences—you could put a group voting ticket in without doing deals. But everybody knows that the Greens go in, they go in hard, they get down and dirty and they are in the back rooms and they have been in the back rooms with the Liberal Party on this piece of legislation. The AEC first sighted this piece of legislation on 11 February. They say that they can get it ready in three months, but we have already had amendments that will be put through.

This inquiry process has been an absolute disgrace and a sham. We have seen the legislation introduced in the House on the 22nd and rammed through in one day. There was complete disrespect shown to senators on the joint standing committee regarding the amount of time we were able to cross-examine witnesses and the witnesses that were called. They were hiding the Department of Finance—they were not allowed to be cross-examined. We cannot be sure that the resources that the AEC need to put this proposal into place will be there, because we were not able to ask anyone. It was a complete sham, and the Greens stand condemned.

Debate interrupted.