Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens are happy to support the government's ridiculous situation of a $160 million plebiscite. You are shameless. You seriously are shameless. You reckon a $160 million plebiscite is alright—$160 million of taxpayers' money. We in this place get paid $200,000 a year, and you think it is alright that we do not have to make a decision and you think it is alright to support that pathetic, weak escape hatch that will let the people decide after $160 million is spent. I have read quotes that it could be $500 million. I am not going to fall into that silly game. I do not think it is going to be anywhere near that but, at $160 million, you are guilty. You can scream as much as you like from the corner, but you are guilty.

You might ask what all of this was for yesterday. It was so they could sure up this filthy, little voting reform legislation to knock off the crossbenchers in the Senate. It is my belief that, as far as the government and the Greens are concerned, nothing else matters. Their grubby little deal takes precedence over anything else—and I have mentioned those other bills.

The government claims that this bill, the Commonwealth Electoral Amendment Bill 2016, implements the recommendations of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters in its interim report on the conduct of the 2013 federal election, but this is not the case. This bill is not the product of the JSCEM recommendations. It is the product of their slimy little deal cooked up behind closed doors. I have heard the Greens carry on about cooking up deals behind closed doors and how they are going to stop it. It still rattles my head. I have no idea what they are talking about. They have just done one.

The government likes to say that this legislation at least implements the substance or 85 per cent of the JSCEM recommendations, but this is not true. The deal done between the Greens and the government is designed to serve partisan interests. It is as plain and simple as that.    These reforms aim to exhaust preferences early so Independents and so-called micro parties are deprived of votes.    Its objective is to prevent new players from entering the Senate, thereby entrenching the electoral dominance of existing players. Whether the Greens choose to acknowledge it or not, the principal beneficiary of the new voting system will be the Liberal Party. The Liberal Party's motivation for supporting this legislation is to achieve lasting electoral dominance in the Senate for the conservative parties and, over time, a lasting Senate majority in their own right.

As I have said before, if there is a problem with Senate voting laws, Labor believes that the appropriate response is for parliament to deal with it through a considered, principled and transparent process—not by rushing through an ill-thought-out piece of legislation that was conceived behind closed doors by the leader of the Greens, Senator Di Natale, and his best mates—Senator Xenophon and the Prime Minister. The outcome must be and be seen to prioritise the democratic rights of the Australian people above all other interests, especially partisan self-interest. There can be nothing more important to public confidence in the parliament than the integrity of laws which dictate who is elected to the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Commonwealth Electoral Amendment Bill 2016 fails this test.

This bill was not the product of any principled and transparent parliamentary process. It is the tawdry outcome of a slimy deal between the conservatives and the Greens. The Australian public cannot have confidence in the coalition or the Greens, as this legislation lacks scrutiny, lacks credibility and lacks integrity. Integrity is something that is very important to me. Let us have a look at the definition of the word as explained in the Oxford Dictionary. It says: 'Integrity: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles'. Let me say that again for those listening and particularly those in that corner to my left: 'the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles'. The Greens, in joining with the government to rush through these reforms and in shutting down debate on issues that they claim to be their own, like marriage equality, have shown that they are neither honest nor do they stand by their morals.

In my previous remarks, I took great delight in informing the Senate of what could happen to the Greens as a result of the reforms and if there is a double-dissolution. I would like to remind the Greens and those listening that it could mean that we might be saying bye-bye to either Senator Siewert or Senator Ludlam in Western Australia or—it gets better—we might be saying bye-bye to Senator Simms or Senator Hanson-Young in South Australia. I put this contribution on social media and not at any point was I or have I been confronted by anyone who had a problem with what I said. Doesn't that say something?

I again have to ask the question: do the Greens know what they are getting themselves into? Quite a few commentators have said that the Greens have not properly done their homework on this matter. There has been a growing chorus of academics and analysists who have criticised this legislation cooked up by this sneaky new coalition that we have seen develop. Malcolm Mackarras has said that this legislation is: 'A filthy deal concocted by an unelected dud prime minister in the Greens Party'—they are not my words, that is from Mr Malcolm Mackarras—'a party known for its moral vanity.'

Do the Greens really know what direction their leader is taking them in? One thing that is very clear is that Senator Di Natale is moving the Greens more and more towards the right. Under his leadership, the Greens are growing ever closer to the conservatives on the other side of the chamber. This is not the first time that Senator Di Natale has sold out the Australian public via a deal with this government. First we had Senator Di Natale's sneaky deal with the Abbott-Turnbull government to cut the payments of part pensioners. Then we had Senator Di Natale's little deal with the Abbott-Turnbull government to water down tax transparency laws for multinational companies. Now we have Senator Di Natale's filthy deal with the Abbott-Turnbull government to alter the laws governing the election of senators, which will increase the chances of the coalition gaining a majority in this Senate.

As leader, Senator Di Natale has spent a lot of time talking about these grubby deals in the Senate chamber. For a party that prides themselves on fighting for a better Australia, including advocating for Indigenous affairs, climate change and asylum seekers, I am baffled by how little Senator Di Natale has actually focused his time on any of these issues in this place. Compared to one speech on Indigenous affairs, two speeches on climate change and four speeches on asylum seekers, Senator Di Natale has given a total of 16 speeches on separate deals the Greens have done with the government since becoming leader. In his desperate ploy to deal himself into political relevance he is dealing the Greens out of their political values.

In putting his desperate desire for mainstream media attention before the Greens' political values he is sacrificing his party's integrity on the altar of his own vanity. He continues in his words, 'At some point in the future, we will be a party of government,' Senator Di Natale said. I nearly wet my pants—sorry about that! 'Never say never' is the quote I would use about everything in politics.