Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

No, no. I think they have contributed to the debate. I think that has been an exciting contribution that they have continued to make. But we are dealing with a flawed process here. We are dealing with a flawed system. We are dealing with a legislative rush-through that has actually got us into a lot of the mess that we are in here today.

Senator Whish-Wilson is—and I have said this many times in this chamber—somebody I have an incredible amount of respect for. Certainly on his views on financial services, industries and that, we do not always agree eye to eye, but I think he has always been very passionate and strong.

An honourable senator: Except when he rolled over.

Well, I note that he made a good contribution even today in question time. I thought he asked a fine question. He is someone I do respect when he comes and says, 'Oh, this moral high ground; this holier than thou.' Well, hang on. If you had not rushed and if we were not here—you talk about the dirtiness of politics; there is nothing dirtier than the kind of deal that has lead to us being here and where you decide that you are going to have a political fix and to retrofit a little bit of ideology or a little bit of political rhetoric around it. This is a Greens/government fix to remove some pesky crossbenchers. Everything else has been retrofitted to try to justify that and to justify that kind of behaviour. Let's not kid ourselves, that is what is going on here. Let's not pussyfoot around this. This whole thing is a rort masquerading as some kind of democratic reform. It is none of those things. It is an outcome that has been predetermined and a system that has been built around that outcome to actually give the situation you want.

Those on the other side are going on about it, but you cannot argue both ways that it is good. This is bad for progressive Australia. It is bad for progressive voices. In the short term it perhaps could be positive for certain elements within the Greens political party. That is what is going on here. I cannot wait till we hear the contribution from some of the other senators, including the Green senators. I would love to see what some of the senators say who are probably going to be in the firing line as a result of this.

But part of my real issue is this handing of the keys to the government for a double-dissolution under a system that they know will benefit the conservative side of politics. That is the inevitability of where this is going. It is no coincidence that the Greens sit around and say, 'We will give them an amendment. We will give them 1 July as the date on which this can start being used.' Is it any coincidence that you have government ministers walking the halls of the media upstairs saying quite openly, 'We are looking at a double-D election and we are going on 2 July,' and coincidentally the date that the Greens come up with is 1 July?

An honourable senator interjecting—

That is not coming from our side of politics. That is coming from your own.