Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to briefly contribute on the motion before the chamber. It is an ordinary feature of the program in this place that time is allocated for debate for private senators' bills, and that's appropriate. There are many matters that senators wish to bring before this chamber, and indeed I have on many occasions brought a bill before this chamber and sought to have it debated, and I have appreciated senators entertaining the ideas that I have put here. But Senator McKim is now asserting that, because his matter did not come to a conclusion, time should be extended. There is no real rationale for this. There are plenty of opportunities on the program for the Greens political party to re-list this matter. I understand that, on this occasion, they are seeking to make a political point. That's also a thing that's common in this chamber. But let's be very clear: the consequence of the Greens extending private senators' time is to frustrate the capacity for the government to move to government business. The matter before the chamber in government business is the Future Made in Australia Bill. I can't think of anything more consequential for this chamber to be considering for the future of industry, manufacturing, green industries and the transformation of the Australian economy than the bill that is listed next. But, consistent with all of their actions in this place, it's all about the politics. The Greens political party would prefer to make a political point than to actually allow us to debate something of consequence, something that goes to the heart of what they say is the most important issue confronting Australians, which is climate change and the transformation of our economy. Their preference is always a stunt. They would rather have a meme. They'd rather have a set of signs. They'd rather have a photo-op. They'd rather whiteboard their strategy, their walk-out or their TikTok video. All of those things matter more than debating legislation that will actually make a difference to the decarbonisation of the Australian economy and the future of Australian workers and the industries and regions that they claim to care about but never actually do anything about. Whenever they have the opportunity when other people seek to do something constructive, their position is to obstruct it, to block it and to say no. In that they join the coalition, who also seek to say no when constructive ideas are brought before this parliament.

We have a problem, don't we? The parliament is predicated on the idea that negotiations, conversations and debate will occur in good faith. You can't have a debate in good faith when the negotiating parties are always seeking to block and never in fact to build or do anything constructive of any kind. Again, we see that today. So we do not support the extension of time. There are plenty of opportunities for private senators' matters to be brought before this chamber. They should be brought before the chamber, but that should be done at the time that's allotted. That has clearly expired, and the games that are being played this morning do nothing to assist the work of this chamber and the work that we are actually tasked with doing on behalf of the Australian people.