Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Briefly, in response to the rubbish we just heard from Senator Cormann with regard to Senator Di Natale not being here: the situation last night was that Senator Duniam was the next senator on the speaking list and, because Senator Cormann and Senator Duniam had cooked up a strategy to bring that debate to a close, in fact Senator Di Natale was not here because it was actually not his turn on the speaking list. It was Senator Duniam's turn on the speaking list, and then Senator Cormann got to his feet, got the call and therefore closed the debate. I wanted to place that on the record.

By the way, these questions from Senator Williams to Senator Lambie are a disgrace. He is attacking Tasmania. He is attacking Tasmanian farmers. It's like the Three Amigos: you never learn, you mob. It is why you got so thrashed in the election in Tasmania, why you lost lower house seats, why you lost Senate seats: you are out of touch with farmers. What Senator Lambie and the Greens are trying to do in here is stick up for Tassie farmers like Tim Reid, who, by the way, I used to pick apples for, so I do know what I am talking about here. I have pulled apples off the tree for Tim back in the day to earn money to go backpacking, by the way, so don't come in here and try to lecture me about what is best for farmers and what is best for backpackers.