Derryn Hinch (Victoria, Derryn Hinch's Justice Party) Share this | Hansard source

For Senator Cormann to get up and say this was an 'administrative process failure' is a disgrace. We all sat here yesterday. We know what happened. I sat next to Senators Waters and Faruqi and looked across the chamber after Senator Hanson moved her motion. I stood and argued against it and said it was so bad and so racist and bigoted that it could have been written on a piece of toilet paper.

We sat there as the bells started to ring for four minutes, and I saw a couple of government members walk in and sit down on this side of the chamber. I turned to Senator Waters and said, 'They've made a mistake.' I was genuinely shocked that a government member would come and vote in support of this disgusting, despicable motion. And then we read this morning that it was 'regrettable' for the Prime Minister. Senator Di Natale is right: it's not regrettable; it's bloody disgraceful.

Senator Cormann, who I've respected in the past, and the Attorney-General now say it was an administrative process failure. Where was the process failure when you put your bloody tweets out yesterday saying how wonderful it was? You voted with Senator Hanson because you wanted to prove how lovely and nonracist you are. You supported that, Senator Cormann. You backed it up. And now we're being told some poor junior in the Attorney-General's office has been thrown under the bus because you made the deliberate decision to back Pauline Hanson on this disgusting issue.

You can't say you didn't know it was coming. We sat here yesterday afternoon as you started to come in and sit down. You heard Labor and Greens senators yelling at you: 'What are you doing here? Are you crazy? Are any of you actually thinking about this?' I actually got a short tweet from Peter FitzSimons asking, 'Did any of them—did one government member of the Senate—vote against it?' I said, 'Not one.' At least some of you—very few of you—had the decency to sit there looking uncomfortable because you knew that what you were doing was wrong. Overnight, some of you have said, 'We've got to get out of this.' I guess those senators were thinking that Redfern is not inside the Wentworth constituency. This is disgusting. This was wrong. The fact that you are now trying to weasel your way out of it is just not right. It is dishonest. The Greens are right, and Labor is right: you knew it was a slogan by the KKK. You know it's from neo-Nazis and extremists. You know that. This was like the final solution speech—'Oh, we didn't know!' You have a hundred more staff than I have and I knew. My few staff knew, so you can't hide behind that.

You've known for a month about this. I stood here that day that Senator Hanson was about to launch us on the 'I'm white and I'm okay' debate. I wrote down some words. I didn't get to use them because the government and I presume the President, with respect, decided to push it down the list and we ran out of time and didn't get there. I saw Senator Hanson sprint up to the President at the end of that time for motions and complain to the President that she hadn't been heard. She knew she'd lose the vote, so she went on Sky the night before and boasted about what she was going to do. She went on Twitter the day before and said, 'Look at me—we're going to do the "I'm white and I'm okay" number.' She knew and she was disappointed that she couldn't get off the ground what I call the verbal burka stunt. She did yesterday. The verbal burqa stunt got off the ground yesterday, and you—the government—voted with her. You backed her, and you should be bloody ashamed of yourselves.