Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Government in the Senate commences that spray with a suggestion that the Labor Party are opposing the orderly dispatch of business in the Senate. Let us be clear what he is doing. He is bringing in a motion that requires debate on legislation that we have not seen. That is what this hours motion does. He comes into the Senate and up-ends standing orders, up-ends the Order of Business and says to the Labor Party, 'We want you to agree to debate a bill that you have not even seen.' That is not orderly dispatch of the business of the Senate. That is a secret deal to take money off Australian families, and the government is not even prepared to demonstrate it to the Senate. We still have not even seen the bill that the crossbenchers have agreed to bring on for debate. That is no way to run the Senate.

I am not going to descend into the sort of personal innuendo that this Leader of the Government uses as his stock-in-trade. I will just say this: in that speech we saw again why no-one in this place likes him—because he is unable to have a political debate that does not offend or impugn—

Senator Brandis interjecting—

the personal motivations of other senators. He cannot debate the issues.

Senator Brandis interjecting—

Are you going to pick him up, Mr President?

Senator Brandis interjecting—