Cory Bernardi (SA, Australian Conservatives) Share this | Hansard source

I congratulate both the opposition and the government in their rejection of this attempt to hijack this place to pursue another element of the Greens' extreme agenda. The Greens, of course, are a party where hypocrisy is not unknown, because they stand to be the defenders of the marginalised and yet they marginalise many people and they refuse to deal with some of the serious, egregious breaches of public trust within their own ranks. As a point, Senator Farrell mentioned the Victorian election campaign in his response, and the Greens have someone who, on their Facebook page, endorses shoplifting as a legitimate pastime—one of their candidates. And, importantly, today it was revealed the Greens also have a person who has an alter ego as a rapper and, in his rap contributions, decides it's okay to drug women and rape them and violently abuse them. It is an appalling, shameful indictment on the selection of this motley bunch of Green zealots.

Why should we think that this might just be a single aberration? It's not, because the former senator Lee Rhiannon—may she return to this place, because her replacement is far, far worse—belled the cat on the abuse, the pawing and the sexual harassment that is endemic in the New South Wales Greens, which Senator Di Natale and his crew refuse to deal with. They come in here all pious, defending the marginalised, and yet they will not stand up to the freaks and the creeps in their own ranks who are molesting women in New South Wales. There are complaints and you're refusing to deal with them. But why would we expect anything different from you, Senator McKim? Why would we expect that? We know exactly what has been going on, because Senator Lee Rhiannon has published it. Senator Rhiannon, your former colleague, the one that you marginalised because she was prepared to speak up against your freaky, outrageous agenda.

You come in here and you try to hijack the agenda that the Australian people want dealt with. They want to see the GST fixed. They want to see you concentrate on the important issues. If you want to go through the contributions from those on the Greens, on every single occasion it's about finding some ism, some failure or some victim in this country. We've had enough of it. The Australian people have had enough of it. Get on with mainstream things. We need to protect people's jobs. We need to arrest the debt and deficit. How many times have the Greens spoken about debt and deficit in this place? Next to none, is my suggestion. The only thing they talk about is how everyone's apparently racist. Everyone's apparently racist in this country. Everyone's a bigot. Everyone's some sort of ism or some foe. Yet we know that the sexual harassers lurk within the New South Wales Greens party. We also know that they endorse people who say—or rap or sing or whatever it is they want to call it—it's okay to drug women and sexually abuse them. They defend that and say: 'Oh, it was just a song. It was done in their youth.' Well, that doesn't cut the mustard. Anyone who thinks it's okay to say, 'Yes, we should be drugging women and raping them or abusing them'—or whatever they say in their rap lyrics—is on another planet.

The Australian people have had a gutful of the Greens and their freaky agenda. The Australian people want this parliament to concentrate on things that are important to them. It is about building stronger families. It is about making sure our economy is better. It's about lowering taxes. It is about easing the cost of living. It is about providing practical, sensible and commonsense solutions to the ills that have failed to be dealt with because this place has been controlled by a bunch of people who are completely outside the mainstream. We can't allow this to happen anymore. I congratulate the major parties today for rejecting the extreme agenda of the Greens, which is trying to manifest itself by hijacking the business of this Senate again and again and again. Not only will they not deal with the issues confronting the Australian people; they refuse to deal with the issues that are endemic within their own party. They are a closed shop of misogynists, heterophobes and reverse bigots. They are the most disgraceful political party in the history of this country. Well done to the major parties for closing them down.