Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

We oppose the suspension of standing orders to debate a bill for a plebiscite because the government's view is that this is nothing but a last-minute stunt by the opposition. We know that, in an effort to put something in the Monday morning papers, Mr Abbott and his team decided, with a week to go in the current parliament, that they would launch a bill for a plebiscite. They announced proudly that at 10 o'clock in the morning they would come into the parliament and put the bill before both houses of parliament. Here we are on Wednesday, two days later, with a half-hearted attempt by Senator Abetz to try to justify the humiliation that has been afforded Tony Abbott on this question.

When they announced they were coming in at 10 o'clock on Monday morning to fight for a plebiscite they forgot to note that the parliament did not sit until 4.30 in the afternoon. That is a little oversight on the grand strategy. No-one had told Senator Abetz, because he was not ready to go on Monday—he read about it in the papers. This grand strategy was unravelled by about nine o'clock on Monday morning. Since then, we have had this scramble to try to justify the position. This was a media stunt. It was a stunt that only lasted about 12 hours.

When Mr Abbott was asked to defend it he had to explain why suddenly he had come to this position. He had to try to answer the point that maybe it was related to the fact that the Senate would change on 1 July and maybe it was a little opportunity to play some politics. But, when asked the key question about the plebiscite and his claims that this was about giving people the chance to make the decision themselves, he said he would not accept the result. He said, 'We'll spend $80 million of taxpayers' money, we'll let the people decide, but if we don't like the decision the Liberal Party won't accept it.' What an absolute fraud. We have the Leader of the Opposition coming up with this stunt, saying that this is a really important issue of democracy in Australia, and then saying that he would not accept the result. What a nonsense. His whole campaign for this plebiscite collapsed within hours, his credibility in shreds.

What we have today, two days later, is a decision by the leadership of the Liberal Party to say: 'We'd better go through the motions. We'd better go in the Senate and pretend we're serious about this. We'd better give it a run. It's all turned to complete dust, but we'd better get in there and at least say we fought the fight.' This was lost two days ago when Mr Abbott undermined his own position, when he said, 'No, it's important that the Australian people decide, but if we don't like the decision we won't change our position.' It was totally undermined by Mr Abbott.

This is a stunt. It is nothing more and nothing less, and Senator Abetz's rather half-hearted attempt today reflected that. An attack on Senator Fielding that somehow Tony Abbott's incompetence would be all Senator Fielding's fault is a little unfair on Senator Fielding. It was a stunt that unravelled because of a lack of any strategic decision-making behind it. You could not even work out what time parliament sat. You could not work out that if you introduced a bill in both houses of parliament at the same time they would not give you legislation; it had to be done serially through both houses of parliament. This was done by the media team without reference to the Senate leadership and is a nonsense. Quite frankly, Tony Abbott stands condemned as an incompetent leader by virtue of his handling of this matter. You have never seen anything quite as ham-fisted as this. To come in and argue that we ought to have a plebiscite but then say he will not accept the result is just breathtaking in its incompetence.

I urge the Senate to reject this attempt to deal with this bill. It is not in accordance with normal procedures but, more importantly, it has been revealed as an absolute stunt in which the Liberal Party do not have their hearts. The best they can do, 48 hours later, is come into the Senate and go through the motions—to try to limit the humiliation that Tony Abbott is now having to confront.