Duncan Spender (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is not my first speech. I am new to this place but I can tell when the fix is in. This is a fix between the coalition and Labor to do lots of terrible things to our democracy. In particular, we're talking about an hours motion that prevents us from debating a dozen or so bills. Now, I selfishly would like to speak on these bills, because I might not have a lot of time in this chamber. So I would love it if, instead of just saying at five o'clock tonight we're going to ram all these things through without any debate—I've not had an all-nighter in this place. I know some of you have. I'd like one. I know you've got the stamina, so, please, let's have an all-nighter. I'll debate all of these things. You'll get to hear my fantastic views about the idea of expanding a government bank. Surprise, surprise: I don't support expanding a government bank. Government banks are complete failures. But this government wants to do it with this.

Last night we heard a lot from our fantastic Treasurer about doing lots of things without increasing tax—doing something else without increasing tax. Well, what are we doing this afternoon at five o'clock without debate? We're increasing tax. And then a bit later on, if I can remember what that bill does, we're increasing tax. It's a complete lie that the government is not increasing tax, and it wants to ram through some bills that increase tax the day after it said it's not increasing tax. It is a complete lie. We've also got some increased government spending, but that's par for the course.

We've got this bill that I have no idea about, no-one has any idea about and we have not seen. It's called the Criminal Code Amendment (Sharing of Abhorrent Violent Material) Bill 2019. Is that bill going to say we shouldn't do live streaming? I've heard a lot of debate in recent weeks that we shouldn't have live streaming. Where did I hear that debate? During live streaming. I was listening to ABC Radio. I was watching ABC TV. I was watching commercial TV and listening to commercial radio. You know what that is? Live streaming. This debate needs debate so we don't make completely stupid decisions—but anyway.

I'd love to be able to debate these things at five o'clock. There are also other matters. I have a motion which we're not going to get to under this proposal: general business notice of motion No. 1455, which would be to say that Senate estimates can continue even if we call an election. By the government and Labor proposing this motion and blocking the ability to have the motion that I will have about Senate estimates, they are basically just voting to have a week off. Next week you're supposed to be in Senate estimates. The Senate is a continuing chamber. You do not need to call off estimates simply because you call an election, but you guys don't want to do any work. Well, I've only just got here. I'd like to do some work, thank you very much. So next week let's have estimates. Let's have motion 1455 included in this.