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

I didn't refer to anybody specifically. I said, 'You're prepared to side with the racists and bigots in this chamber.' People can draw their own inferences about who that was directed at. The reality is this is a government that's prepared to side with the racists and bigots in this chamber in a desperate attempt to hold on to power. We saw that only a few days ago when they supported that disgraceful motion that was presented in this chamber and cited as an administration error. There are no depths to which this government will not stoop. There are no depths to which they will not stoop. While we disagree, fundamentally, with Centre Alliance and Senator Patrick's support for the small business tax cuts, the one thing we do agree on is that the Senate should be allowed to do its job. While we disagree on many areas of policy, the one area that we do agree on—indeed, this is something shared by most members of the crossbench—is that we are elected here to hold governments to account regardless of their persuasion. Today, the political duopoly, the Coles and Woolies of politics, are locking us out. They are preventing us from doing our job.

We have two significant pieces of legislation before us. One piece is designed to facilitate a trade agreement that will hand over inordinate power to large corporations, that gives the power to corporations to sue governments for taking action to safeguard our environment and to protect public health. It's saying to mining companies, 'You can sue sovereign governments if they deny you a permit to exploit a particular resource.' It's saying to corporations, 'If you take action to protect the public health of our community, a corporation can now sue a sovereign government.' This is the sort of legislation that we are being prevented from scrutinising as a result of the decision of the Liberal Party with the support of the Labor Party.

We are about to have a debate in this country leading into an election around tax cuts. I fear that what we're going to see is this giveaway continue all the way to the next election—my tax cut is bigger than your tax cut. We need to know what the impact of those tax cuts is on our community. We need to know what a $10 billion tax cut does, what the opportunity cost is of ripping that money away from the essential public services that we know so desperately need them.

Again I say to you, and I urge the chamber: do not support this motion. I say this again directly to the Liberal Party: we understand what is driving the Liberal Party—desperation, clinging onto power, saving their hides. holding onto Wentworth. It's what's driven them to make those rash announcements in the lead-up to this by-election. But why on earth would the Labor Party be facilitating them in passing this motion that stops the Senate from doing its job?

I remind you again, and hope you have pause to reconsider supporting this motion: this chamber is not a rubber stamp. It is a house of review. We have been charged with an awesome responsibility by the Australian people to ensure that every bill that passes from the lower house to the Senate gets the due scrutiny it deserves. We need to slow down the pace of legislation to interrogate it, to examine unintended consequences—not to accelerate it, not to rush it through, not to jam it and ram it through, which is what this motion does.

We're supposed to be a democracy that ensures that both houses do their job. The role of the Senate is being frustrated by a government for no other reason than a desperate Prime Minister seeking to cling onto power. The Labor Party shouldn't facilitate them in doing that.