Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

You'd expect better of the government if they really wanted to be constructive and work with this chamber to get legislation passed. They've done that before, but, for whatever reason, they've got out on the wrong side of bed this morning and they are tetchy. We just saw that from Senator Wong—personalising things, running the personal arguments, running the politics and not at all talking about the issue. Minister Wong, who moved this motion and says that the government want to get on with debating their bill, spent the entire time talking about the Greens housing spokesperson.

I would like to point out that the bill has been through the House. It is now before this Senate, and it is up to the Senate to decide how we deal with this piece of legislation and how much time we are going to give to scrutinising this bill. No matter what side of government it is, it is always the case that, when they want their way, they think they have ultimate control. It doesn't matter whether it's the Labor Party or the Liberal Party in government: wake up! There is a Senate crossbench, and you have to be prepared to negotiate, talk and work together.

What we've seen today and, in fact, all week is a lack of respect for this place, a lack of respect for this chamber and a lack of respect for the individual senators who have been elected to this place to stand up for our constituents and the issues that the community wants. No-one in this debate should be wanting to ram through a piece of legislation which has already been proven to be a fake. There is no guaranteed spend on housing in this bill, and that is a problem. Minister Wong has stood here and said that this government has a mandate. Well, you don't have a mandate in the Senate. And you don't have a mandate on a bill that you promised people would build houses, because the bill doesn't do that.

We would like to fix the bill so that it does build houses and that money is spent creating homes for the most desperate people in this country. It is a sick joke that this government continues to pretend that it is dealing with the housing crisis while gambling everything on the stock market. It's a sick joke, and people are seeing it for what it is. If you really care about building houses to help women fleeing domestic violence, build them. Fund them and build them. That is what the Greens would like to see.

The fact that there is no guaranteed spend in this bill means that your promise is hollow. And what about the one-third of Australian households who are renters? There is nothing in this bill for them. What does the Prime Minister say about that? 'Not my problem. Leave that up to the states. We can't do anything. Not my problem.' It is not good enough. We want to work constructively with you, but, if you keep playing these silly games with a winner-takes-all approach, you're not going to get very far.

I'd remind members in this place that this Senate works best when we stick to the issues and stay away from the personal jibes. This place works better when we give decent time for debate and we work together to maximise that, not when we have stunts brought in at nine o'clock, the beginning of the morning, to up-end things. To the government of the day: you have to start to understand that you do not control the Senate. You do not. You have to talk to people. You have to cooperate. That is what the Australian people voted for. They voted for a Senate to scrutinise and work collectively, not to rubberstamp fake and hollow promises from the government of the day.