Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I must say, Senator Duniam is the sort of modern face of the Liberal Party—very articulate, presenting a different face to what we saw in the previous government; he wasn't a minister in the previous government. But the reality is that the position of those opposite is still the same. At the end of the day, the reason they are opposed to the safeguard mechanism legislation and are using every trick in the book to try to delay and obfuscate is that they do not believe in taking action on climate change. That's the fundamental principle from those opposite. They do not actually want to pass this legislation, and that is why Senator Duniam is looking for every delaying tactic in the book.

The fact of the matter is that by doing what he has done now he is delaying further the ability to get into the committee stage and ask the questions that he wants to ask. So, it is stunt after stunt, filibuster after filibuster, because, at the end of the day, they have learnt nothing from the election last year. They've taken no lessons from that. They've taken no lessons about taking action on climate change, because they are so divided in their own show. We saw the federal election result last year. We saw the New South Wales election result only a couple of days ago, where the Liberal government was defeated. But they still come into this chamber and want to use every delaying tactic they can, every trick in the book, because, at the end of the day, they do not want to see serious action taken on climate change. That is what we took to the election. That is what we intend on delivering in government. People are sick and tired of the games of those opposite. We will not stand for it. I move:

That the question be put.