Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

The Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Administration) Bill 2024 is a hallmark of this government's approach to doing business, and it's what we've seen consistently over the last couple of years. It's this embarrassing approach to not being able to manage their agenda, not being able to keep the promises that they make to the Australian people about the things they said they would do at the last election and, of course, that usual high degree of opacity around what it is they're actually doing.

Some of us are old enough to remember Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, who was otherwise known as 'Baghdad Bob' or 'Comical Ali'. He was the Iraqi foreign minister under the Hussein regime in Iraq as it was about to end in the early 2000s. I reference this character because he was the fellow who would hold those daily press briefings telling the world that the Hussein regime was on the march, that everything was under control, that there was nothing to see in Iraq and that there were no US tanks in Baghdad while, only a couple of hundred metres from where he was holding these press conferences, there were scores of US tanks taking Baghdad. It reminded me of something. It reminded me of Minister Watt and his claims that everything is under control—that the government have got control of their agenda, so much so that they would march in here with a guillotine motion and they would demand that by the end of today we would have this bill passed, not having entertained one of the very reasonable amendments that have been put forward by the coalition to make this bill fit for purpose.

Debate interrupted.