Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I have to say how terribly disappointed I am that we won't have a chance to vote on this very important motion today. At the beginning of last week I had my hopes set extremely high that, in the interests of transparency and good governance, the Australian Greens and the coalition would be able to work together to extract out of this government, which hates sunlight and transparency, the modelling that underpins the safeguard mechanism. Unfortunately, though, I did smell a rat early on in the piece when I had my motion ready to go, asking for this modelling and saying: 'Hey, Australia, we are not going to deal with this bill until we get this modelling that couldn't be shown to us, first because it was cabinet in confidence. Suddenly, then, the excuse changed to "market sensitivities". Take your pick. Whatever day of the week it is, the government will choose its excuse depending on which way the wind is blowing.' But we couldn't get there with it. We had to have a motion—an alternative one which has now been withdrawn—that enabled the Greens to decide when they bring the bill on. Now they want to bring it on. They've done the deal. Sorry, Australia. You miss out.