Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

There is more, Senator Bilyk. What about the Western Australian Greens convenor Chilla Bulbeck, who personally donated $600,000 to the Greens at the last election? Now, maybe the Greens don't think $600,000 is big money and maybe they're not people the Greens are hoping to catch in this piece of legislation, but there are just three examples that I know of showing how hypocritical the Greens are on these issues.

We do believe in reform and we believe in practical results. When the Labor Party started campaigning at the last election for the end of foreign political donations, everyone said: 'No, you can't do it. You won't be able to achieve it. You're in opposition; the government will stymie you.' I have to say, we didn't get very much support from the Greens on that issue, but we persisted. We argued and argued, and what did we get? We got a bill that banned political donations before the last election. So for the first time in Australian political history foreign political donations were banned in this country. The former foreign minister couldn't rake in all that money while she was the foreign minister. I'm talking about Ms Bishop. She couldn't rake in all those foreign donations to the Liberal Party as she had done in previous elections. I'm not just picking on the Greens, Senator Waters. I'm equally having a go at the government.

So there's plenty of hypocrisy around on these issues, but the Labor Party has got runs on the board. We've pushed for the issues and we've had the outcome. The offer I make to you, Senator Waters—because I checked again last night; there hadn't been any calls from the Greens about your amendments—is that we're very happy to talk to you about a practical outcome in political reform, because the Labor Party believes in it and, more importantly, the Labor Party has achieved it. If you sit down with us and Senator Patrick, Senator Lambie and Senator Griff then we can get practical results, but this is not the way to do it. Grandstanding—making this the last item on the list, trying to get a bit of cheap publicity—is not the way to do it. You've got to be serious about it. You've got to start at the beginning and, as we've done in the past, you'll get the results.