Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I would certainly have appreciated it if he had done the same when Senator Cormann was on his feet going all around the mulberry bush, so there is a bit of hypocrisy, but I suppose they are mates now. Getting back to the taunting French guard, everyone is trying to get in—and everyone has a right to try to get in—but the Greens and Senator Di Natale are up in the castle. What did the French soldier say in Monty Python and the Holy Grail? He said in a French accent, 'I don't want to talk to you no more.' I cannot do the accent.

Honourable senators interjecting—

I will give it a go: 'I don't want to talk to you no more.' He does not want to talk to the people he has been talking to over a period. He goes, 'You empty-headed animal food trough wiper! I fart in your general direction!' That is basically what he has done. That is basically what they have done for you guys.

Honourable senators interjecting—

It is Monty Python.

The TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN: Senator Cameron, would you direct your comments through the chair.

Don't you know Monty Python?

The TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN: Be careful about your parliamentary language.

He said, 'Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!' Every time I have seen Senator Di Natale on his feet—and to some extent Senator Rhiannon—I keep seeing the taunting French guard. They are here and no-one else is going to get in.

An honourable senator interjecting—

You can do it better than me. That is the reality. You see them there. That is what it is all about. They are in the castle. No-one else is going to get in and there will be no more new parties come into this place. As Senator Wong indicated, there will be the major parties in the rest of Australia and in South Australia there will be the major parties plus Senator Nick Xenophon and his party, whatever it is called. They will all be there in their pyjamas looking to get more people into parliament. But anyone who has any interest in politics but is not aligned to any of the major parties will not be there because they will be locked out. See Senator Rhiannon up there, she is the female version of the taunting French guard. No-one else is getting in! I am surprised that Senator Cash would say that people will think I am drunk. No-one who knows me would think I am drunk.

Senator Cash interjecting—

I am certainly not drunk. Senator Cash, I can understand why you would not know Monty Python. I have not seen much humour from you ever in any of the stuff you do in this place, and sometimes a little sense of humour goes a long way. So you do not have to call me drunk. If you cannot understand Monty Python, if you cannot understand a bit of humour, if you cannot understand that there is really a serious point to it in relation to what the Greens are doing—they are in the castle, no-one else is going to get in. The Liberal Party are in but no-one else is ever going to get in. The drawbridge is up, the ladders are up and no-one else is going to get in. That is what the public need to understand.

What we are going to get is a first-past-the-post proposition. The punchline is that you guys are behaving exactly like a Monty Python figure. That is what you are. But you are not even as strong or as capable as the Monty Python figure, because you could not negotiate a decent deal if it was put in front of you. You had an opportunity to deal with a range of important issues to your rank-and-file membership, who are telling you that this is the wrong thing to do.

You had an opportunity to actually deal not only with electoral reform but with reform in a range of areas. You could have had a proper debate. We could have been here tomorrow dealing with marriage equality. We could have been doing that and we could have had an outcome. But, no, the deal you have done is more important than marriage equality; it is far more important than marriage equality to you guys. It is about your power and maintaining your position. That is all you are about, nothing more than that.

You could have had a chance to deal with the donations and the rip-offs that are going on over on the other side—the trust funds that are established, the associated entities that are in the Liberal and National Party, hiding money, shifting money around the country so no-one knows where the donations are coming from—

An honourable senator: And now they are going to give them a company tax cut.

Yes. If you want to know what any of the policy positions that the Liberals and Nationals are taking, look at who is giving them the money, because that is where they go. Look at Manildra in New South Wales, where they have meeting after meeting to hand over more and more money to get an ethanol plant in New South Wales. Even some of the Nationals and some of the Liberals in New South Wales are saying it will mean an extra 8c a litre on petrol in that state. Why is that? It is because a multimillionaire donor is providing funding to the Liberal Party and they are paying that donor back—meeting after meeting, more and more money flowing into the Liberal Party into one of the associated entities. It goes there and it comes down to Canberra, then the money comes out of Canberra and gets filtered back into New South Wales to avoid the New South Wales laws.

If ever there was a need for a royal commission in this country, it is a royal commission into the associated entities of the Liberal and National Party, because that is where the rorts are going on; that is where democracy is being pushed aside for the interests of the Liberal Party donors. That is where the problem is, and the Greens should have seen that as being an issue. The Greens should have known that that is the main problem. If you are getting more and more money coming in to run big businesses' agenda and you do not have to disclose where that money is coming from or you hide where the money is coming from, and then you introduce legislation for tax cuts for your mates at the big end of town and you take away the superannuation benefits for low-income workers in this country, we all know what that is about. It is about making the poor pay for your rich donors. That is the issue here.

It is an absolute disgrace that the Greens are hand in hand with this mob over here, doing over democracy in this country. We have heard so much about democracy—all the pontification from Senator Di Natale about how this is good for democracy. It is no good for democracy unless you fix up the electoral donation issue. It is no good for democracy if the big end of town and the financial donors to the Liberal and National Party are calling the shots and the money is being hidden in associated entities all over the country, awash with big business money to run their election campaigns against the Greens. Kroger made it quite clear that there might be some sensible Greens, but there are others that are not sensible. The Liberals are already looking at it. They are classifying the Greens as the nutters and the non-nutters. This is not a good look for the Greens. They are going to have this loose arrangement designed to get rid of good, effective local members that have made a huge contribution to politics in this country, and Mr Albanese.

The attacks against these politicians are going to be on the basis that we have to defend other seats, because preferences will not be given by the Greens. These are the deals that are going on, the so-called loose arrangements. Kroger is quoted as going on to praise Senator Di Natale, saying:

You've got a doctor [Di Natale] who owns a farm who doesn't come from this mad environmental background. He's helped the government get legislation through the Federal Parliament. So you look at the Greens through a slightly different lens these days because they're not the nutters they used to be.

Tell that to Senator Abetz. I have not heard Senator Abetz run those lines. I do not think Senator Abetz thinks that is the position. I do not think Senator Bernardi thinks that is the position. We have this massive split in the coalition. We have those that want to cuddle up to the Greens and do deals or have loose arrangements to try and diminish the major Left political party in this country. The Greens can do a deal with the Liberals that will end up meaning that, if we come back and the election is won because of these rorts that are going on by the coalition, Work Choices will be back on the agenda. The ABCC will be back on the agenda. The GST will be back on the agenda. The $7 co-payment will be back on the agenda, because Senator Cormann has never walked away from that first 2014-15 budget. We know that the current Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has indicated that he supported every element of that first budget—the $7 co-payment and the starving of young unemployed people for six months. These are the situations we are going to face if the coalition are returned at the next election. It will not be enough to have the Greens and us here, because there will be no Independents. Without the Independents, that last budget would have gone through, and ordinary Australians would have been much worse off.

This whole voting system that is being debated tonight is simply about entrenching both the Greens and the coalition. That entrenchment will be bad news for the working-class families in this country. It will be bad news for middle-class families. It will be bad news for workers around this country. That is because the coalition have absolutely no understanding of the battles that workers have. Many of the crossbenchers in here have stood up to some of the worst aspects of the budget. This is about is entrenching the coalition at the expense of the crossbenchers and making life worse for the poor in this country.