Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

Here we are—it's Friday afternoon, and the Labor Party and the Greens have got their tickets booked home. They've got the champagne waiting for them in the chairman's lounge, because they want a long lunch. They do not want to stay here in this chamber and debate critical legislation. They call a big game—they're all about transparency, these two political parties—but they cannot resist cooking up a deal in the last couple of hours to make sure critical legislation receives no oversight and no debate from the senators from Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales, who've all been sent to this place to put that perspective on the public record and not assume that everybody agrees. The Prime Minister can't be bothered to rock up to question time or the House of Reps. He cancels sitting weeks like no-one's business because he doesn't want to be up-front about why his referendum failed and why 60 per cent of Australians don't agree with him. He now wants to silence the Senate from doing our constitutional duty, which is to debate bills, ask questions of ministers on behalf of the Australian public and then vote. What this government has done since coming to power is to reduce sitting hours, reduce scrutiny and reduce oversight from the people's representatives. These guys love a guillotine more than the French loved a guillotine.

Today, you are seeing critical bills such as the live animal export bill guillotined, despite the Greens having an army of amendments to that piece of legislation and despite the crossbench wanting to have a conversation. Do you know why? It's because, every time we get up and talk about this government's desire to prohibit live animal exports for sheep and its devastating impact on sheep prices and farming communities around this country, Minister Watt goes to water. He won't leave Perth, and he doesn't want to hear about the negative impact of his policies on our communities. Well, guess what? That's what the Australian parliament is supposed to be about. We're supposed to come here with a diversity of perspectives, sit down, listen to them and then vote appropriately. This Labor government had a debacle last week, when the crossbench got more legislation through than the government did. Senators Pocock and Lambie got through four bills for critical industrial relations legislation. What did the government get through last week? Two bills. They then had to do the deal with the Greens today, and we end up with five or six bills rammed through with no debate and no questioning. It just shows you how cynical the Labor Party is about transparency and accountability. You're all talk, but when it comes to actually living by what you promised the Australian people—