Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know the Greens will have a view on this particular item because they were one of the ones that convinced Senator Ludwig that he should ban the live cattle trade. But what about the way they have just voted on the last motion, where, after spending all fortnight attacking the government on the Malaysian solution, they just came into this chamber five minutes ago and supported the government on the way the government has run the borders, that is, sending children to Malaysia for dealing with over there. What hypocrisy, again, from the Australian Greens. And we will see it in this document that I am referring to about livestock mortalities. One would think that the Greens would be here en masse talking about this particular document, but they are so hypocritical.

I just emphasise to anyone who might be listening to this debate at six o'clock on a Thursday afternoon as they drive home from work that we have just seen the spectacle of the Greens, after all fortnight attacking the government on Malaysia, proposing all of these other issues and threatening to vote against the migration arrangements, then, when a vote came in the Senate, slipping over and voting with the government to support the Malaysian options. Does the hypocrisy of the Greens know no bounds? It is just incredible.

On this document I am talking about, who knows where the Greens would be? Are they in favour of live cattle exports or are they opposed to them? They do not know themselves. You see, Madam Acting Deputy President, they came in here on the last motion, and first of all they were going to oppose the guillotine. But when they saw that it was me who had moved that the motion be put and the only person who was guillotined by that motion was me, the next speaker, they then suddenly decided, 'Oh well, we don't want to hear Macdonald, so we'll go over there.' They are all over the ship. It used to be the case that, on the live cattle issues and issues of livestock mortality, they were always seen as the principled party, the ones who always did the right thing. Yet you see from today that they have supported the guillotine seven or eight times, and they even supported the guillotine that, as I say, I moved against myself.

The Greens seem to now be addicted to guillotining debates. I have been here a long time. I used to have to put up with Senator Brown speaking for hours at a time about how awful, how evil, the John Howard government was when a guillotine was introduced. And here they are, seven or eight times this week already, supporting the guillotine.

For those who might be listening, what we are doing now is going through a whole list of government documents that are filed during the week. These documents give senators and members the opportunity of looking a bit more closely into the reports that are given to government. This one before us deals with livestock mortalities. It is the sort of thing that senators relish the opportunity of getting a bit closer to and having a look at, but where are the Greens when we have these documents here? They never show up, because we know that at this time of night it does not attract much media, so Senator Brown and his cohorts are out of the chamber. This report on mortalities is a document that I would urge senators to look at to understand the issues involved. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.