Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will take that interjection. The interjection from Senator Scullion, in which he said, 'We'll let you know,' reveals the hubris and arrogance that is the telltale of the way in which we have seen this government operate from the minute they got in here. I know that you recall, Acting Deputy President, the early days in which we arrived in this chamber. We can see how contemptuous the government have been of the people who have come here on the crossbenches.

I recall the first dinner that I had with Senator Muir and his wife, with Senator Lazarus, with Senator Day, with Senator Leyonhjelm, with Senator Dio Wang and with Senator Lambie. We had conversations right at the beginning of their journey here. For many of them it was their first encounter with this place, with this chamber, and instead of giving them the respect that they deserved as elected representatives the government concocted their program for this place in a way which forced the new senators to vote very quickly on the legislation that they were putting forward. It was a ploy. They came and they thought: 'They're all new Johnny-come-latelies sitting on the side benches there. They don't know what they are doing. They don't deserve our respect, because really we should not have the riffraff like them in here. They don't belong in here.'

We have seen that Senator Muir is perhaps one of the most maligned of all of these. Senator Muir has been maligned in the press and then maligned so many times by this government because he has come from working in a sawmill. I remember my first conversations with him. He had a cup of tea with me at about 10 o'clock one night and I said to him, 'What would you normally be doing at 10 o'clock at night?' He said: 'I probably wouldn't be sitting here in a suit. I'd have different clothing on. I'd have some sawdust in my hair and I'd be making sure I didn't drop sawdust into my coffee.'