Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I believe the wackiest senator in this place is Senator Roberts. I believe he will be taking inspiration from this deal struck by Senator Leyonhjelm today. We know that the ultraright who sit here on the crossbench would love nothing more than to take pot shots every day at our national broadcaster. They desperately want in their clutches the possibility of dismantling the ABC. Of course there are members of Malcolm Turnbull's own frontbench and backbench who want to do the same. Tony Abbott could not be prouder of a deal that both gets through his union-bashing legislation and gives a good kick to our national broadcaster on the way through. Tony Abbott would be very proud of this deal indeed. It shows how desperate this government is to get this through before the end of the year.

This legislation is incredibly undemocratic in that it attacks a select group of the Australian community, some of the hardest-working Australians that this nation has. It treats them as second-class citizens under the law. This is not good enough. That is not how we should be treating Australian workers at a time when unemployment is rising, particularly amongst our young people. We need our construction sites to be safe and good places to work. We know we need young people in this sector more than ever. Treating them as second-class citizens just is not okay. I do not care how much Tony Abbott wants to thump his chest when it comes to beating up on the unions or how desperate—