Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I am happy to acknowledge Senator Seselja trying to come in on the debate. As was discussed at the time, the amendments would have allowed a more realistic time frame for the industry to transition to new agreements that complied with the code. I wanted to give that some recourse. That is the essence of the bill now before us. It is not setting up the ABCC or the Building Code; it is just around that issue of dealing with the transition to new agreements that comply with the code. The grace period has been thrown out.

It is deeply shocking that we have arrived at this point. We have seen the Xenophon team and Senator Hinch come forward with a useful suggestion, and now they have smashed their own suggestion. The trust that one builds up in this place in terms of how one works together has clearly been damaged or, one could say, removed entirely. It is not just that they have reversed their position on a vote but they have reversed their position on their own amendment—their own suggestion that they brought in here to try to salvage a serious problem that they identified, recognised and came forward with a view on. Well, the government still gets what it wants; it just has to wait a bit longer.

The trust has gone: the backflips that we have viewed are extraordinary. I would really urge the crossbenchers—and it looks as though they have done a deal—at this late stage to reassess what they have done, recognise that they did the right thing back at the end of 2016 and that this bill should not go through.