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

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Leave granted.

I want to respond to some of the comments that were made earlier by Senator Cormann in the chamber. Senator Cormann indicated to the chamber that the reason the division was called just before parliament was adjourned last night was that I was not present to speak to the bill. In fact, a Liberal member was next on the speaking list. What happened was that Senator Cormann, with his fellow colleagues, thought they had hatched a grand plan to bring this bill on for a vote at a minute to midnight and sneak it in. Instead, the only people they fooled were themselves. The only people who were fooled last night were members of the Liberal Party and the One Nation Party. Instead of being honest and saying, 'We hatched a plan, we stuffed it up and the consequence was we lost the vote,' Senator Cormann misleads the parliament by suggesting that the reason this happened was that I was not present in the chamber. No, Senator Cormann. It was your mistake. It was your silly little plan. You botched it up like you have botched so many things in this chamber, and you reap what you sow.