The Leader of the Government in the Senate commences that spray with a suggestion that the Labor Party are opposing the orderly dispatch of business in the Senate.
Let us be clear what he is doing. He is bringing in a Bill, and a motion that requires debate on legislation that we have not seen. That is what this hours motion does. Come into the Senate, upend standing orders, upend the order of business and say to the Labor Party, we want you to agree to debate a bill that you havent even seen.
That is not orderly dispatch of business of the Senate. That is a secret deal to take money off Australian families and that theyre not even prepared to demonstrate it to the Senate. We still havent seen the bill. The bill that the crossbenchers have agreed to bring on for debate we havent even seen. Thats no way to run the Senate.
I am not going to descend to the sort of personal innuendo that this leader of the government uses as his stock-in-trade. I will just say this: in that speech we saw again why no-one in this place likes him, because he is unable to have a political debate that does not offend, or impugn the personal motivations of other senators. He cant debate the issues.
So let's be clear: this is an hours motion to rush through a secret deal, to come in here to the Senate, upend the order of business, suspend standing orders because we have to rush through and immediately debate other cuts to social security, other cuts to what families get that we havent even seen.
It is an extraordinary proposition, and it is a deal that has been done in secret. And I have to say to the crossbench, as I have said previously to Senator Hanson and to others in this place: I may disagree with what your policy position is, but you are entitled to negotiate with the government on policy. But I fundamentally disagree with the way you are walking over the way this Senate should operate.
To come in here and say we want to have a bill debated now that you havent seen because you havent been in the negotiations, you havent had it disclosed, sit till midnight tonight, sit till midnight tomorrow night and sit on Friday, with no other notice to senators is an extraordinary way to run this chamber.
This government is a government that is lurching from crisis to crisis and it is now again turning its sights on families. It is the old tried and true. We all remember of course that this is a government first elected on a promise that there would be no cuts to health, no cuts to education. Well, here is a government that is cutting assistance to families now in a new secret way that we do not even know.
We have record low wages, penalty rates being smashed and now we have got cuts to payments that low-income families rely on to fund a child care package that will make life harder for many Australians. And they want to smash it through this Senate in a deal with the crossbench in the next three days requiring us to sit additional hours at short notice on a bill we have not seen.
When are you going to tell the Australian people what your deal is?
We know this government wants to cut the take-home pay of Australian workers to fund a $50 billion tax cut for big business. That is what this government's values are. We anticipate, whilst we havent seen the bill, that those values will continue to be reflected in this legislation.
I say again to the crossbench: you are entitled to deal with the government on policy, but what an extraordinary way to make this Senate operate. What an extraordinary way to come in here and support an hours motion that you have got the numbers on.
The Nick Xenophon team, who have obviously signed up to this, where are they? You believe in the proper process of the chamber and in democracy. You have got the numbers. You have given them the numbers on upending this place in order to get a deal through in the next two and a bit days to suit their agenda. Which cuts to families have you agreed to?
Let us remember the child care package leads a third of families worse off.
You cant trust this government when it comes to take-home pay for workers, you cant trust this government on health and education and you cant trust this government when it comes to family payments.