Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Publicly, as well—and to not give truthful answers to the chamber. This is a government that does not deserve to be re-elected; it does not deserve the trust of the Australian people. Labor rejects the premise on which the Prime Minister has prorogued this parliament. We wholeheartedly reject the Australian Building and Construction Commission bills, along with the registered organisations bill. If the Prime Minister—as he now cries crocodile tears for it—was committed to ensuring these two bills passed the parliament, he would have brought them on for debate in the last sitting period. But we know what the Prime Minister's priority was: he wanted to introduce, with his new best friends the Greens, a rort of Senate voting systems. He wanted to introduce a rort. You will all want to cheer me now; I cannot let this opportunity pass. We are here today for one reason and one reason only, because the Greens voted with the government to give the opportunity for this government to hold a double dissolution.

They mugged you. They took you to the cleaners in the negotiations. They promised you they would not bring the bill on in those two weeks, but they did not mention they were planning on proroguing the parliament, to use a political manipulation to bring it on anyway. They would only do that because they think will benefit from the new Senate voting system reform. You have handed them that on a platter, just like we have seen Senator Xenophon fold like a deck of cards on the safe rates bill. You have put this country in the hands of Senator Xenophon and the government after this election. We have seen in the last couple of weeks what a backbone he has when it comes to standing up to the government. It is all on your heads.

This bill is not urgent enough to go through the political manipulation of proroguing of the parliament. It is all about creating a double-dissolution trigger. It has nothing to do with the need to prorogue. This government has so mismanaged itself, it has so mismanaged this chamber and it has been fighting itself behind the scenes so much that it could not get its act together to bring on the bill for debate. We had till September. The normal election is not till September. These bills could have been dealt with many times over, but this government with the help of the Greens in creating a new rorted Senate voting system has seen a political advantage in forcing a double dissolution on this bill.