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

Of course those other bills can be progressed through this parliament, but what the government knows that it is trying to do is to ensure that, over the next few hours, passage is cleared, including by moving any procedural motions and having any divisions on them that are necessary, for an unprecedented piece of legislation to be put through this parliament today. That's what the government is attempting to lay the groundwork for in this motion—to allow unprecedented legislation that has not been to an inquiry, that will have wide-ranging implications not just for the fast-tracking of a species to extinction but also to allow coal and gas projects to be approved, to allow other environment destruction to take place and to remove the communities' right to oppose that. The government knows full well what it is trying to do, which is to clear the procedural decks to allow the fast-tracking of legislation that will fast-track a species to extinction and open up massive loopholes in our environment laws that other coal and gas corporations and other huge developers are going to be able to drive their way through. The government knows that. The government knows that absolutely.

We'll oppose this attempt to reorder and clear the procedural decks so that the government can fast-track this terrible legislation through. I urge the government in the remaining time that it's got, as it's considering the procedural motions that it's putting here, to go back to the drawing board and say: 'Let's use these next couple of days to pass legislation that will benefit people, that will wipe student debt, that will triple the bulk-billing incentive and that will get dental into Medicare. Let's use it to do that, not to fast-track a species to extinction and to gut our climate and environment laws.'

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