Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

If we were talking about covering an island like Tonga in something, there'd be outrage, with people looking into it and calls for the Australian government to act. But we are talking about stages 1 and 2 of this transmission line, which is 10,000 kilometres long and 77,000 hectares in area—it is the size of Tonga. It is the size of Singapore; it is the size of Bahrain. But, because it's on our land and because it affects these poor people up in the gallery, we don't care. We don't care about our own backyard. We don't want to talk about it or investigate it or look at options. We're just going to tell them to do the right thing and shut up. This is not why this place is here. That is not why we should be here. We aren't talking about legislation that will change something; we're talking about any inquiry to hear something. These people have not gone away. They were in the gallery at five o'clock to hear this debate. They hoped it would go longer. They hear all these things go on. I've got about 15 seconds left, so I say to these people who were here today: we have heard you, we have seen you and we will fight for you. If they shut this down today and if they do not vote for this tomorrow, we will be back. We won't go away. We will stay here and business of the senate on Tuesday will be known as 'transmission Tuesday' until this bill passes.