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

Senator Conroy, I understand that Mathias is seeking to misrepresent what is here. He seems to have this incredible capacity to reconstruct. This has in part been one of the problems with him responding to questions. When he is asked a question, rather than respond to the question he has been asked, he reconstructs the question and answers a different question. That is what we have seen for hours on end here.

Anyway, back to my point. Senator Xenophon is making no pretences here. He sees this as his best chance to increase his own representation in this place and in particular through the corralling of votes in South Australia, where he is personally very popular. Green senators from South Australia—Senator Hanson-Young and Senator Simms—will of course pay a high price for this proposal. A double dissolution election based on this legislation will spell the end for one or both of their political careers. Over time Senator Xenophon will take both seats the South Australian Greens currently hold in this chamber and Australians will be staring at a Senate controlled by the coalition. This is in fact the major point.

People observing this process and airing their concerns continually say to me: 'My biggest concern with this Greens-coalition deal is not best represented by you saying, "Think of Work Choices." What you really need to do is remind people of what that means. Don't just say "Work Choices". Everyone knows what Work Choices is, but what they do not necessarily understand is how Work Choices came about and what would have happened to the 2014 budget if this government had had control in the Senate.' That is the main thing people ask me to highlight about this dirty deal.

The Labor Party opposes these government amendments, as I have indicated, just as it opposes this ill-conceived bill. I say to Green senators, particularly those from South Australia, I hope you understand that the biggest concern about this deal is what it will lead to in the future. After a double dissolution in July this year at least one of the South Australian senators will not be coming back, possibly both.

Senator Hanson-Young interjecting—

Senator Hanson-Young is saying I have already said that. Yes, and I will continue saying that because I think the result of this dirty deal needs to be very clear to the Australian Greens and their supporters. Senator Di Natale has scurried around and tried to compensate for the deal that he should never have done. He has tried to delay commencement but he has only gone halfway there, and he will still allow the double dissolution that this government so desperately wants if it can effect Senate electoral reform. The only want to do it if they can control the outcome of a double dissolution.

Why we oppose these measures was best highlighted here by Senator Cormann's earlier comments. He claimed disingenuously to us that there was no connection between these electoral reforms and whether there would be a double dissolution. How disingenuous. How disingenuous this whole process is, leading to these amendments. To even pretend the government considered these recommendations out of JSCEM in the 64 minutes there were—