Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Grogan. President, I'm surprised that Senator Birmingham wanted to protect Senator Cash from more examination of her statements, because we know that Senator Cash doesn't spend a lot of time protecting Senator Birmingham over on that side of the chamber. But, of course, as for Senator Cash, I really hope that she had better luck in the Melbourne Cup, because all of her other predictions have been well and truly off the mark. Last year she predicted the secure jobs, better pay bill would send Australia back to both the Dark Ages and the 1970s. I don't really know how it can be both. As I've said before, I don't know about Senator Cash, but I haven't seen people running around in the chain mail from the Dark Ages or the flares from the 1970s.

But, according to Senator Cash, it was going to get us to both those places. And, a year on, they're now dusting off the same old doomsday tales when it comes to our closing loopholes bill. Senator Lambie made some interesting comments on the radio this morning that there are only four parts of this bill that those opposite are willing to support, and what that means is that the coalition opposes the rest. They say no to protecting gig workers, no to—