Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What we saw this morning in this chamber is an absolute disgrace. The Greens need to hang their heads in shame. All they've done this morning is filibuster so that we couldn't bring on the vote on our housing bill. I find this really obnoxious of them. They've used their delaying tactics. They tried to confuse other senators with interjections and making statements and running to senators during the vote. They don't want the vote to be called on. We all know what's going on—they don't want the vote to be called on, because they don't want to be seen to be voting with the opposition, the Liberal-National opposition. And it's a disgrace because, while they get up and carry on about people not having homes to live in, they're the ones that have been delaying it, just like they did with our HAFF legislation. They're more worried about having a cause to promote themselves than they are about the people that they claim to represent, and I find that an absolute disgrace. They should be more than just embarrassed.

I'll say this to you, the Greens party: if you are so concerned, bring on the vote. If you want to improve the housing situation in Australia, bring on the vote. Let's have the vote on it. You have got no idea about people living homeless. I doubt you even actually know where in Hobart—for those Hobart based senators—people are based who are living homeless. But, I tell you what, when I went down to Browns River in Kingston and I spoke to a family living in a tent through rain and hail the other day, do you know what they said to me? They said, 'We would never vote Greens again,' and I was pretty happy with that. That is what— (Time expired)