Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I can actually hear the frustration in Senator Di Natale's voice, and not just on this occasion; in fact, it's present in all of the Greens as they make contributions around coalmining. Their frustration is, of course, that they can't get anyone else to agree with them. Nine times out of 10, the majority of the Senate lets them sit over here, with their motions, where there is this lonely cohort of people—a very disciplined group, might I say, in supporting each other. I think it is intellectually offensive that nine people can vote the same way every time for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of votes—as we all know, from human nature, that's not possible. Their problem here is: the reason that their arguments don't resonate in the community is that they are simply based on false premises. We heard a very good contribution here the other day from Senator Williams, who happens to be in the chamber. It was a very good contribution. He laid it out as it is. He laid out the facts, laid them bare. If you were to compare his contribution to the Senate to the contribution just made by Senator Di Natale, Senator Di Natale would not have a single leg to stand on.

Let's look at the impacts of what the Greens are having to say. They want to close down the entire coal industry in my home state of Queensland and, in fact, across the country—in fact, across the world; they'd be happy to do it across the world. Yet they have gone back to their offices now to work under the illumination of energy created by coal. It was overcast outside earlier, so solar wouldn't have been able to provide them with that energy. Of course, if the wind stops blowing, they'll be sitting there in the dark, which I don't think would necessarily be a bad thing for the nation.

Nonetheless, the contributions by the Greens around these matters are hypocritical. We have got a Greens senator who had their Senate office refurbished, and it was reported publicly that nearly $200,000 was spent on a timber floor in their refurbished office—not a tofu floor; not an old, dry, compressed grass floor; not an old leaf floor; not an urban floor but a timber floor. Both the electorate and chambers like the Senate are alive to this complete nonsense expressed by the Greens, and that's why they can't get anywhere. They can't get their motions supported here. Their motions fail one after the other.

I see three Greens senators here. My understanding of the polling is that only one of them will be here come a few months time.