Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Temporary Chairman. I would be happy to. I am actually responding directly to the points that the senator raised. I also note that at no point in her answer did she actually give the Labor Party, the chamber, the trade union movement and its members, or Labor supporters a justification for handing Malcolm Turnbull the keys to a double dissolution which could lead to the abolition of the CEFC—the Clean Energy Finance Corporation—and the passage of anti-worker legislation. She refused to engage with that. Instead, what she did was to decide that she was going to call the Labor Party dysfunctional.

Senator Cormann interjecting—

I am interested that Senator Cormann is defending the Greens. You have really got close!

Senator Cormann interjecting —

No, not at all. Senator Cormann, you know me and you know I will fight very hard at the coming election against you, to take votes off you and to win government—of course we will. What I am pointing out is that they are giving you exactly what you want. Senator Rhiannon tried, I think—it was a convoluted explanation—to say, 'Oh, they can go to a double-d any time, so it does not matter.'