Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I will not make a long contribution. I do not want to make this any more acrimonious than the debate has already been over the past more than 24 hours that I think we have been at this now.

We support the intent of this specific amendment. We certainly support the intent of the amendment. We need to also recognise that this is a very different piece of legislation from the changes to Senate voting reform. This is an issue around campaign finance reform as opposed to the method in which people are elected to the Senate. That is why the Greens have separate legislation to deal with this issue. We have separate legislation in the form of a bill which has now been sent to an inquiry. So while we support the intent of the amendments, we have those amendments now before an inquiry. I think when you are talking about an amendment that is so substantively different from the content of a piece of legislation like the one that we are debating at the moment—which is about the method in which we elect senators to the parliament—then, of course, it warrants a much more detailed look.

If the Labor Party is going to be consistent—because their primary criticism has been that this issue has not been subjected to enough scrutiny; something that we reject—then, obviously, they would want these significant amendments to be the subject of an inquiry. This is a very different proposal to the one that we are debating at the moment. So we look forward to their support once that bill is subjected to an inquiry, and we look forward to ensuring some cooperation when we put that specific piece of legislation to the parliament.

I hope, although I suspect it is a forlorn hope, that this is not just another tactic in the same way as the issue—and I have to say it is to the great shame of all of us in this place, let's be frank about it, that the way this debate will be received by the Australia community is with, I think, a great deal of disgust and contempt for the work that has gone on here over the past week. It is disappointing that issues like campaign finance reform and political donation reform, both of which are really important issue that the Greens have a long history on—Lee Rhiannon has been championing this reform for over a decade in both the New South Wales parliament and the federal parliament. The campaign that she has been running on Democracy for Sale—the websites and so on—has introduced the opportunity for people to assess what corporate donors are funding political parties and to what amount. I think that has all been terrific. So we are keen to progress this issue. But, as I said, it is through an inquiry.

Senator Cormann is absolutely right: this was the subject of the agreement between the Labor Party and the Greens in 2010. It is hugely disappointing that when we did have the opportunity with the Labor Party governing and our support in the Senate—not just our support but making this a condition of the agreement with the Labor Party—they did not bring this on for a vote. If this had been brought on for a vote back in 2010, we would not be having this discussion right now. We would have seen an improvement to our political donation laws.

We have a number of amendments here. I will not speak to each of them individually, just to say that we certainly support the intent of each of those amendments. This is now subject to an inquiry. We hope it is just not another tactic in the same way that marriage equality has been used as a bit of a political football in this place. We hope that we can work cooperatively beyond today's sitting to ensure that we do see what is really important reform that we know the Australian community is desperate for.