Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Through you, Chair, to Senator Macdonald: if you had been actually been listening to the debate, you would understand that a deal has been done. That deal has been done in relation to getting this actual amendment through the Senate. The amendment is clearly linked to changes to the ABC, and Labor is simply saying to Senator Xenophon, 'Table all the agreements. Table all the documents you have in relation to the agreements that you have signed off. Let's have a look at them. Let's understand the context of where we are in relation to the deals that have been done.' I am looking at these so-called deals and it seems to me that it is capitulation. This is not dealing; it is capitulation. When you capitulate to the extreme right wing of the coalition, you will not get any sense out of them on any future issue you bring to them. They know that you will capitulate, they know that you will blink and they know that you are not going to deliver on the threats that you make. That is why Labor is so concerned to understand what is behind the agreement to take rights away from workers in relation to this bill. Labor is saying to Senator Xenophon, 'Why would you take rights away from workers when you could not deliver anything more than a talkfest about the South Australian water supply? You could not do anything better than that.'

This one is an amendment that we can agree to. We can agree to this amendment and we will agree to the amendment, but we want to make it clear to the Australian public that our agreement to this amendment is not based on some public Star Chamber every time the ABC board meets where you are going to have every right-wing ratbag from around Australia coalescing on the ABC board to give them a touch up so that they get the message that their programs should be right wing based and that they need more Sky-News-after-seven-o'clock type programs. What good is the rubbish that goes on Sky News after seven o'clock at night to the public? I actually saw it tonight; it is after six o'clock that the rubbish starts. It is early on sitting days.