Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I feel for once I am sharing the same concern that Senator Macdonald had, and that is that you are failing to convince me and failing to answer my questions. But let us be clear about what has actually gone on here. At this stage a government MP, a former minister, a senior member of your own team who you yourself say is valued and respected and has important significance, has actually got up in this chamber moments earlier and made it very clear that you have failed to convince them, your own government MPs, on these budget measures. Let us be clear about how these things normally happen. Normally there is enough faith, there is enough trust, there is enough dialogue within your own government that these conversations would happen behind closed doors. Has this government already, nine months in, fallen apart so much that your own back bench is now voting against the legislation?

The TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN: Minister? Senator Dastyari.

I am amazed. I think the silence from the minister is deafening. The minister is in such an extraordinary situation now that he cannot even get up anymore and defend the stability of his own government. You cannot get up in anymore and say, 'This is a government that has unity, this is a government that has purpose, this is a government that has direction,' because there is so much disagreement, there is so much division, there is so much of a split within your own party. Let us be clear: you have already had one member—a senior member by your own words, not mine, although I accept he is senior—get up and say that he does not believe you, that you have not convinced him, that he feels that this is not a fair measure. This goes back to the heart of the problem with this budget, which is lack of fairness. I believe that if you wanted to tackle what you deem is some kind of a crisis, which has been manufactured, there were many better ways to do it. Do I think this is good legislation? No. Do I think it is perfect? No. I think it is nothing more than a fig leaf to cover the fact that this is a budget that you have designed that will hurt families, that will hurt lower-income earners, that will attack health care, that will attack education, that will attack the social fabric that holds this society together. And yes, as part of a fig leaf you put in one measure aimed towards higher income earners—