Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

Well, Senator Cormann, you give me the opportunity—

The TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN: Senator Collins, ignore the interjections.

No, he does give me the opportunity to reflect on some of the taunts and the helpfulness that have come from senators. For those who cannot hear the interjections, they are things such as Senator Birmingham saying, 'You're struggling, you're struggling!' And Senator Fifield saying, 'Why don't you just read the phone book?'

For your edification, I think that the best example on electoral reform and, indeed, a Senate filibuster, was back in 1918, where a particular senator actually spent an enormous amount of time simply reading the bill. Now, I have not got anywhere near that type of behaviour. We have clearly highlighted where the government has failed to respond to very legitimate questions so that anyone following the consideration of this legislation very clearly understands the approach of the government, which is: 'We've got our fix with the Greens and we're not answering!'

Let's go to the latest stage of that fix, because Senator Cormann got so excited when I said I was actually dealing with the set of government amendments that covers—

A government senator: We are excited!

Well, it is a very exciting time, according to Mr Turnbull! It is an exciting time to be Prime Minister, I am sure, but it is not necessarily going to be an exciting time if you are a minor party senator, following these measures. I am sure that sentiment is sorely felt.

So it will not surprise Senator Cormann that the opposition opposes the government amendments to this bill. It is difficult to say what is most offensive about these amendments—the bungled handling of them in a procedural sense or the poor public policy outcomes that they represent.