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

So let us be clear: this is an hours motion to rush through a secret deal, to come in here to the Senate, up-end the Order of Business and suspend standing orders because we have to rush through and immediately debate other cuts to social security and other cuts to what families get, which we have not even seen. It is an extraordinary proposition, and it is a deal that has been done in secret.

I have to say to the crossbench, as I have said previously to Senator Hanson and to others in this place: I may disagree with what your policy position is, but you are entitled to negotiate with the government on policy. But I fundamentally disagree with the way you are walking over the way this Senate should operate. To come in here and say, 'We want to have a bill debated now that you have not seen—because you have not been in the negotiations; you have not had it disclosed—sit till midnight tonight, sit till midnight tomorrow night and sit on Friday, with no other notice to senators' is an extraordinary way to run this chamber. This government is a government that is lurching from crisis to crisis and it is now again turning its sights to families. It is the old tried and true.

We all remember that this is a government first elected on a promise that there would be no cuts to health, no cuts to education. Well, here is a government that is cutting assistance to families in a new, secret way that we do not even know about. We have record low wages, we have penalty rates being smashed and now we have cuts to payments that low-income families rely on, to fund a childcare package that will make life harder for many Australians. And they want to smash it through the Senate in a deal with the crossbench in the next three days, requiring us to sit additional hours at short notice on a bill we have not seen. When are you going to tell the Australian people what your deal is?

We know this government wants to cut the take-home pay of Australian workers to fund a $50 billion tax cut for big business. That is what this government's values are. We anticipate, whilst we have not seen the bill, that those values will continue to be reflected in this legislation. I say again to the crossbench: you are entitled to deal with the government on policy, but what an extraordinary way to make this Senate operate—to come in here and support an hours motion that you have got the numbers on. The Nick Xenophon Team have obviously signed up to this. Where are you? You believe in the proper process of the chamber and in democracy. You have got the numbers. You have given them the numbers on up-ending this place in order to get your deal through in the next two and a bit days to suit their agenda. Which cuts to families have you agreed to? Let us remember the childcare package leaves a third of families worse off. You cannot trust this government when it comes to take-home pay for workers, you cannot trust this government on health and education, and you cannot trust this government when it comes to family payments.