James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

My apologies, Mr Acting Deputy President. This is part of the problem with modern debate, which the Greens have introduced. By all means criticise the government for not introducing this for a couple of years—or, indeed, over summer. But do not assign a motive to it. Don't you dare say to me that you know why I acted at this particular point, because there is a paper trail and there are conversations I have had with my colleagues. But this is the poison you have introduced into Australian politics. You seek windows into people's souls—you assign a motive. You try to assign a false motive rather than criticise people for their actions, and politics and debate are the worse for it. I have made it clear why the government has introduced this and I am happy to deal with criticism. But our commitment to addressing it is actually demonstrated by the fact that we have moved to immediate abolition rather than phased abolition, as was originally proposed.

As I outlined, a number of the contributions were actually about the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority and more general issues related to that. I will deal with those when the next bill comes forward for debate. At that, I commend this bill to the Senate.

Bill read a second time.