Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

It was helpful, but clearly it was not a unanimous report and something happened then—perhaps I am wrong—not on the way to the Senate but on the way from the House of Representatives to the committee, which is controlled by the Greens and the Labor Party. What I want to know is what actually happened on the way to the committee and on the way to the Senate that changed the view of the government when this matter was dealt with in the other place. I do not think anyone has properly explained that. Clearly, one could make some guesses on conspiracy theories, on what it is that the Labor Party or the Greens have against religious organisations. In fact, I am quite surprised that people like Senator Farrell have allowed this to get to this particular stage. I wonder what Mr Joe de Bruyn thinks about this. He is that union guy who seems to control the South Australian Labor Party and, through them, the Australian Labor Party. So what was it? Has any explanation been given in this debate so far as to what this amendment is all about?

This amendment and the way that the Labor Party have dealt with it and the way they deal with any comment that gets close to the truth are in fact interesting. Here was a bill that received universal support in the other house. So what happened? Why didn't all of the Labor members who supported this in the House of Representatives come to this conclusion as they debated this bill so minutely in the other place? Somewhere along the line the Greens or someone have influenced the Labor Party in the Senate—

Honourable senators interjecting—