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

Thank you, Chair. I understand why the Greens are edgy about some of these things. I know why they do not want us talking about Michael Kroger. That is pretty obvious, I think, to everyone here.

But let us look at the point of Senator Rhiannon's amendment. She has tried to con her colleagues into thinking that this will prevent the government from going to a double dissolution election. That was the point. In fact, that was the actual origin of this amendment. To see the Greens try to pretend otherwise is a joke. But, in terms of the claims that this has been done to convince her colleagues that they will be protected from a double dissolution, if that is the case then this has been even more deceitful than I would have given credit for. This will do nothing to stop the government from rushing to a double dissolution election. If anything, as Senator Wong has said, this gives the government the keys to one—the keys to a double dissolution election—and Senator Rhiannon knows this. The sad thing is that her colleagues did not seem to understand this.

They take offence at suggestions of Stalinist tactics, but that is what seems to be occurring here. As I said, do not take my word for it. Michael Kroger has got her pinned. She is the extreme, excessive element of the Greens party according to him. In terms of his descriptions of Senator Di Natale, of course, I have already said that he, in meeting him, saw all of his Christmases come at once. Of course it is in his own interests to try to fuel the working-class-boy image. It suits Michael Kroger's interests to do that and to flame the ego and the vanity involved there. But Senator Rhiannon and the Stalinists in the New South Wales Greens know that she has—