Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I seek to speak on the motion. Had the government come in this budget week and said, 'We need to reorder business to pass legislation to ensure that people can go and see their GP for free and triple the bulk-billing incentive,' we'd have entertained that. Had the government come in this budget week and said, 'We want to pass legislation to get dental into Medicare,' we'd have entertained that. Had they come and said, 'We want to pass legislation to wipe student debt by 20 per cent to ensure that it's protected against whatever might happen in the next government,' we'd have entertained that. We offered the government action on all of those things because, in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, when we have been called back for a couple of days to sit, we should be prioritising legislation that might actually help people. But, instead, the government says, 'We've got to come back and reorder business to fast-track legislation to gut our environment and climate laws and to do a dirty deal with the opposition to fast-track extinction.'

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