David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In potentially my last speech in this place, I wanted to talk briefly about priorities and take a moment to recap. Last night the major parties prioritised reform to give themselves $80 million each in additional funding at elections and lock out new entrants with an unfair bill with no amendments from the crossbench genuinely considered. They also rammed through scams legislation, an undercooked bill full of loopholes that, like their electoral reform, won't actually protect consumers or help scam victims get their money back. Today they are ramming through child care, again without the chance to move amendments like one to ensure children without a birth certificate are captured by this legislation. Offshore wind is very important but, in some communities, controversial, and it passed with no chance for debate and no Senate scrutiny. The workplace gender equality bill, which I support and which was introduced last November, we won't get to, because of how the government has managed time in the Senate and prioritised other legislation.

The Australian people didn't send a record number of crossbenchers, of Independent representatives, to the parliament just to be a rubber stamp. They sent us here so that they would have a voice, to help improve legislation, and what about the unfinished business of this Senate, everything the major parties have parked in the too-hard basket? Let's go through a few of them now.

Where are the mandatory guardrails for artificial intelligence:? The government has absolutely dropped the ball on this. What about a ban on deepfakes at elections? It's something we've been warned about. What about truth in political advertising, a ban on gambling advertising or environmental reform that actually protects nature? Where are the changes to laws to have more competition, in our economy, in a cost-of-living crisis? They're in the too-hard basket. But when it comes to money for the political parties, there's political will.