Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

There was a time when upholding the democratic principles was the key tenet of conservative thinking, but not anymore. What we're seeing is an unprecedented attack on civil society not just from Senator Bernardi but, indeed, from the conservatives in the Liberal Party. We saw that unprecedented attack in the raid of the AWU offices, where we had the media there before the police arrived. We've seen the attack on civil society organisations in the ban on foreign donations—for example, organisations like Oxfam, who would be prevented from advocating for more aid to poorer countries. This is an assault on democracy. Of course, if we're talking about taking money to advance causes, let's look at the roll call of organisations that are lining up to fill the pockets of the LNP.