David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

We've seen again a worrying lack of process from the Labor government. Senator Scarr talked earlier about the legislation being stamped on Friday. It's Tuesday morning; we get a quick look at it, and they want to ram it through with the coalition's support. Despite protesting, they're happy just to sign this off. We saw the criticisms, when it comes to human rights, of the last legislation that was rushed through this place. You'd think we'd learn from it as a parliament.

The way the government has treated the lower house Independents today is disgraceful. It's totally disgraceful to not allow them to say anything, to gag debate and to not even allow them to move amendments to this bill. We were promised so much by the Labor government and this is what we're getting: this lack of process and lack of transparency. I thought Dr Helen Haines, the member for Indi, summed it up when she said: 'If this is the best form of democracy Labor can give us, then I am sorely disappointed and I'm sure my constituents are too. Australians should be worried.'

The contents of this bill aside—I'm not across it yet; we were given a hundred pages this morning—in terms of process, this should absolutely go through the Senate committee process. As Senator Shoebridge pointed out, we are dealing with human beings here. This has a material impact on people like you and me who have hopes and dreams. We should ensure that the laws we make have been well thought out and scrutinised, and then decide that, yes, this weighs human rights with community safety. It's so disappointing to see the Labor government doing this after all that they promised us.