Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What we have is a last-minute deal that was done by the Nick Xenophon Team in the dead of night under dirty circumstances to keep One Nation happy. Every time we do these deals the same thing happens: on the surface they look fantastic, but when we start getting to the bottom of them we see that there's nothing there. These are dirty deals that have been done dirt cheap, and they are done at the 11th hour. We as a Senate are better than this. We as nation are better than this. Senator Xenophon, who has consistently got up in this chamber and spoken against horsetrading and against doing these kinds of deals, has spent the 11th hour doing this. It is an attack on the ABC and an attack on media diversity. This is a fix to a problem that it appears no longer even really exists.

There are going to be winners out of this legislation when it passes today, and the winners are going to be One Nation, because, once again, this government has kowtowed to them—has kowtowed to their coalition partner One Nation. Senator Xenophon has facilitated what will no doubt be a long-term attack on public broadcasting—a long-term attack on the ABC—and has broken a solemn principle that we don't horsetrade like this on this type of legislation. We have seen this time and time again. When proper daylight hits, and there is nothing more than a $60 million slush fund for iPads, we will see it for the farce that it is.

Progress reported.