Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to stand on a matter of public importance. When Senator David Pocock and I agreed to vote for a second tranche of the closing loopholes legislation, amongst other things, we asked for, and thought we'd got from Minister Burke in good faith, a review of the suitability of the Fair Work Act's definition of 'small business', which is currently set as fewer than 15 employees. Following a reshuffle, the new minister, Minister Watt, told the ABC that he didn't have plans to follow through on our good-faith agreement. How disappointing. Apparently, the words 'good faith' mean absolutely nothing to this government. This doesn't just send a very bad message to Australians; it says very clearly that the Albanese government is totally out of touch with small business and what they are dealing with right now.

Tasmania has lost thousands of small businesses since this government came to power, and over 6,000 jobs have been lost over the last six months alone. They have been smashed by the red tape, including the unfair dismissal laws, which have completely gone Left. Since this government came to office, promising greater transparency, promising integrity and promising the Australian people that they would be careful about how they spend Australian taxpayers' dollars, I think we all had higher hopes, or at least some hope, that this government would not just talk the talk but walk the walk. Let's face it: they're not walking; they're crawling, and they're still in their naps.

I think the only thing this government cares about is getting elected again. That's why they've done a dirty deal with the coalition to design election funding rules that help the major parties lock in more power. Time and time again this government has tried to stitch up the crossbench. They've taken away crossbench resources. They've pushed a mountain of legislation onto the crossbench with hardly any notice. The Australian Labor Party likes to think of itself as the party for the people, but, according to my research, they could also be known as the party of guillotines. They absolutely hold a new record on that.

For those Australians watching who aren't political junkies, let me explain. A guillotine is when the government, usually in an attempt to avoid debate and scrutiny, put a lot of bills together and try to get them passed all at once. I don't like guillotines. In just one term this government has brought on more guillotines than the coalition did in nine years. In 2½ years they've shut debate down more in here than the coalition did in nine years of power. It's absolutely shameful. From the start of the 47th Parliament to August this government has stopped debate and pushed through 157 different pieces of legislation. That's 157 bills that weren't properly debated or scrutinised.

A prime example of this was just last sitting week, when the government jammed the Australian Naval Nuclear Power Safety Bill down the crossbenchers' throats. Despite there being 30 crossbench amendments on this bill, none of them even had a chance of being debated, let alone seeing the light of day. There was no community engagement. The local council that was affected by the Osborne site has since voted to oppose the storage and disposal of radioactive waste at the site.

This just goes to show how much disregard the major parties have for communities, the Australian people and the crossbench. This government doesn't care about struggling small businesses, and, my God, are they struggling. They are absolutely on their knees. They don't care about kids getting addicted to gambling, and they don't care about wasting taxpayers' money—that's for sure. They certainly don't care about integrity and transparency. I want to remind Australians that these guys over here did everything that they could before the last election to say to you: 'We will be transparent. We will be so transparent. If there's one thing we promise you, we will be transparent.' Well, you failed.

You have not been transparent with the Australian people. Even in here, we're trying to get questions on notice—what a joke!—and waiting months on end. They can't get it. They don't want to show us documents. This is not the way to run a country. This is not the way to build trust. It's certainly not the way to build trust in here, let alone the trust with the Australian people. When you go down at the next election, have a good look at yourselves and go back to one word: transparency. (Time expired)