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

There are so many things that I could respond with. It is so tempting, but I'm really not going to respond to Senator Macdonald, other than to say that, when Senator Fifield, the minister, has to resort to sending this backbencher out to filibuster, we all know there's a problem. The problem here is twofold. The first problem is that this minister seems to be unable to negotiate an agreement, and the second problem is that this is no way to run this chamber. If you come in here tomorrow or the day after demanding that we continue to sit until you've finally got a deal, it will really demonstrate the contempt with which the government and some other senators hold other senators in this place.

I would also make the point—and this is a substantive point—and place on record again that, if this government does a dirty deal with One Nation to attack the ABC, as the price of its media reform, this government will demonstrate that it has no shame. To use the public broadcaster that Australians all over this nation rely on, including in regional Australia, as a political football to cover up this minister's inability to negotiate a deal is not only incompetent; it is shameful. When the minister gets to his feet to respond to me, he should say: 'We rule out doing anything negative to the ABC and SBS. We rule out cutting their funding because we need Senator Hanson's vote on this media bill'—a media bill that he's clearly so attached to.

So, as I said at the outset, this is a fine mess—and it is a mess of the government's making. Ordinarily, the opposition would simply accede to the government's right to rearrange its business. But, given the number of times that this bill has been on and off and on and off and given the lack of notice on this occasion, we are not going to do so.