Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

I have to say, since the country's going through such a difficult time at the moment and it's so difficult, we're sitting here on a Wednesday morning before we finish for, I think, nearly eight weeks and we're talking about electoral legislation. That's the first item on the agenda this morning, Australians!

An honourable senator: The money-laundering bill!

The money-laundering bill—that's the one. How about that? Because we are going through such an economic crisis, these guys here, the major parties, have made a dirty, filthy little deal to talk about electoral matters. That's where we're at this morning. Don't worry about these people. Don't worry that we have no vaccine. Nobody's got any vision from your side that this could be going on for the next few years—that these people may need pandemic leave—and what are you going to do? Just leave them without money, are you? How's that going to keep the economy going around?

You want to talk about what's important to this country—and, by the way, this was never on the agenda—and you're in here chucking this right at the crossbench's face this morning. Because this is so important, it was chucked on late last night to tell us that we're going to talk about electoral matters here this morning. We're going to talk all about cash and about winning seats instead of the health of Australians in this country. That's where we're at this morning. That's apparently what's more important than anything else. It's not about you guys, your house loans or if you get pandemic leave, while these guys are saying, 'Open all the borders,' and waiting for a catastrophe to happen and then wondering how we're going to keep Australians going for two weeks; wondering how, if they're on pandemic leave or they're on leave with nothing to cover that, they're going to feed their kids; and wondering how they're going to pay their house payments. That's what we're doing this morning, because apparently that's the most important thing. Quite frankly, you should be ashamed of yourselves this morning. This is just rubbish.

My office has looked at this this morning, and already we're finding holes in it. You're not talking about the loans, how they're not going to be transparent and how this is not going to be how you're going to get a loan like the Labor Party did last time with $30 million—that apparently you can pay these loans back, but they're not a political donation even though you're using that $30 million to win political seats. My God, that's where we're at. You have had an inquiry. You've been sitting there saying, 'This is great,' and you've got a girl from Tasmania who hasn't got a university degree, and I'm already, in 10 minutes this morning, finding holes in this bill. That's where we're at. So bring on the debate.