Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

When Senator Mulholland was talking about the types of questions she wanted to ask, she referred to 2050, I think, as a timeframe. That's a quarter of a century away. We have question time next week. If the Labor Party's argument is that it is so urgent—I would argue the Labor Party executive has discerned that it's not urgent, because their own question time tactics committee put other questions ahead of Senator Mulholland's Queensland farmers and Senator Smith's issues around health. It is not this chamber's role to do the tactics committee decision-making that Senator Gallagher and Senator Farrell are actually in charge of.

What we are concerned about in this chamber is that it's not a convention that's being broken. This question time was an order of the Senate, not a convention. It's an order of the Senate as of yesterday, and you are all in contempt of it, because how this question time was meant to be operating is not a convention. The executive branch of the government of this parliament is taking unprecedented steps to influence and coerce members of parliament. This chamber is sovereign, alright? It's sovereign under our Constitution. And you might not like the orders of the Senate, but you have to comply with them.

I am a former minister that had to comply with an order of the Senate to do something unprecedented: to appear before a Senate committee and answer questions. I respect this chamber, I respect its authority, and I respect its sovereignty and my responsibilities. I did that. The Labor Party's absolutely ridiculous response here today has shown they are not up for being accountable and transparent as a government. They don't want to release documents. They don't want to be subjected to FOIs. They don't want their ministers to turn up and make explanations.