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

Not really, Senator Xenophon. Again, the proposition is very straightforward. You said during the election campaign that you would use your position, the balance of power, to rip up free trade agreements, and now what you are saying is that you will not support an amendment because it does not comply with the free trade agreement. So you have gone from saying, 'I don't support free trade agreements and, in balance of power, I will rip them up,' to now arguing in support of a free trade agreement, and not supporting a sensible amendment simply because you are worried that it is in contravention of a free trade agreement. It is hard to see that as anything other than a contradiction. I suspect there will be many people who will be concerned about your position now on free trade, because you made very strong noises during the election campaign about your concerns and yet here you are saying that you will use your position to ensure that we comply with free trade agreements. I cannot see how those two positions are reconcilable.