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

I'd just like to say that I don't mind if you want to do late sittings; we get paid more than enough. But if you gag something and say, 'Get it done by 9.15,' you're starting to become like a dictator, to be honest. If this needs us to take until two or three o'clock in the morning before we get up, well, welcome to real life out in the real world. As I said, we get paid more than enough. Just saying, 'If we don't get these through by 9.15, we are going to ram them through,' is going way too far. I'm not very happy about that at all. This is not the way to run a country at all. If everyone has to stay up all night to get these bills through—there's very little resilience here—trust me, you'll get them done eventually. But putting a finish line so early, at 9.15—I didn't realise that people went to bed so early up here—is absolutely crossing the line. I'm not real keen on it. If this is going to continue, it'll just make us look like we have a really bad standard here—that we cannot manage a chamber. So I have to ask, and I'm sure millions of other people are asking: how are you actually managing the country? Seriously. Anyway, the next election is on you guys, I guess, so good luck with that.