Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

A number of inaccurate assertions have been made by the two speakers in the committee debate so far. The suggestion that this legislation is being rushed is blatantly false. It is of course well understood that this bill, the Commonwealth Electoral Amendment Bill 2016, implements the unanimous recommendations of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters which were first released in May 2014. That committee had some very significant Labor luminaries on it—not just anybody but two former Special Ministers of State; two former Labor ministers, cabinet minister, who were looking after electoral policies. They were Mr Gray and then Senator John Faulkner.

Senator Jacinta Collins interjecting—

I know that Senator Collins does not like to hear this—and she likes to continue to rudely interrupt. I did not interrupt Senator Collins at all. I listened to her in silence. But let me again remind Senator Collins—and I will do this, I suspect, on a number of occasions tonight—that Mr Gray this morning said that these reforms that are before the Senate implement 95 per cent of the reforms that were recommended by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters. Mr Gray is not alone when it comes to the Labor Party; there are other senior Labor luminaries who actually share his views. Today we had on Sky News the former Premier of Queensland, from Senator Moore's home state of Queensland, Mr Beattie. Do you remember Mr Beattie?