Glenn Lazarus (Queensland, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

The Senate is the final stop for the consideration and debate of bills which impact on the people of Australia. As a senator for Queensland I consider every bill on the basis of whether it will benefit the people of Queensland, and if it does not I will not support it. If it does but it needs improvement, I will amend it. In my time in this house, I have acted with honesty and diligence, I have done the hard yards for the people of Queensland and, despite the threats of a double dissolution by Malcolm Turnbull, I will not change my approach. The people of Australia come first, not multinational mining companies, not the Chinese government, not the big end of town—the people of Australia. If the Turnbull government wants to get bills through the Senate, my advice to Malcolm and his colleagues is: start writing better bills. Start writing better bills which benefit the people of Australia, not the rest of the world.

Yes, I agree voting needs to be reformed, but the dirty deal done by the coalition and the Greens delivers extreme reform which will wipe out any chance of everyday Australians being able to enter politics through the Senate in the future. That is not what I call a democratic process. This delivers a system whereby only the rich will be able to enter politics, by buying their way in through advertising and publicity. Malcolm Turnbull wants to turn Australia into America.

Senator O'Sullivan interjecting—

I see the bully in the pack there at the back. Wucka wocka wacka! Malcolm Turnbull wants to turn Australia into America. Heaven forbid. He wants to deregulate higher education, he wants to privatise Medicare and now he wants to limit access to politics to the wealthy. Everyday Australians are going to miss out because of this dirty deal.

Once the new voting reforms have been rammed through the Senate, the Turnbull government will go to an early election, through a double dissolution, because they are scared that, if they wait, they may lose too many seats due to their waning popularity.