Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this matter of public importance, and I welcome a discussion on political donation reform and how we can best protect our vital democratic traditions. Labor has a proven track record when it comes to donation reform and has tried to legislate on multiple occasions to reform the political donation system, and there is the great irony of this issue. Here today we have the Greens calling on Labor to 'commit to comprehensive and immediate political donations reform'. The hypocrisy of the Greens political party knows absolutely no bounds, because when Labor tried to implement comprehensive donation reform in March—not 10 years ago, not five years ago, not three years ago—

Senator Rhiannon interjecting—

In March, when they had the numbers they were more interested in trying to do over Senator Hanson-Young. They were more interested in trying to do over one of their own—it was a spectacular own goal on that front. You just cannot rely on those party members in South Australia to do the dirty work for you, can you? But it is all right, you got her later this year; you got her after the election.