Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw. What I will say is this. Everyone knew that the Liberals in this place were supporting this disallowance last week, and now, today, we find out that they are not going to support it. In doing so, the Liberals are letting the government off the hook. Let me explain exactly why that is. It's because, in an attempt to make it seem like they're not letting the government off the hook, the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate has just revealed in her speech that the Liberals are going to table a private senator's bill on this matter which will no doubt contain a broader cash mandate then currently exists.

We all know what's going to happen there. If it's a decently drafted bill and it does contain a broader mandate, I'm not going to speak for One Nation, but you'd assume they'll support it. We'll have a look at it; you could assume we'll support it too. It will get through the Senate, and do you know what's going to happen then? It's going to go down into the House, and it's going to die a miserable, lonely death down there. It will never be brought on for debate, because the government has the numbers down there, so it will never become law.

What you could have done was vote for this disallowance today and force the government back to the table to bring in an appropriate mandate on cash, one that was far more broad in scope than the one that they're currently proposing. And the reason they are not going to be forced back to the table is that the opposition have squibbed it today. That's why. That's why the government has been let off the hook.

Senator Cash can spare the chamber her crocodile tears and handwringing about cash, because the very reason that cash is not going to be mandated for things like data, communication services and energy bills is that the Liberals backed down and squibbed it today. When people contact us—and, boy, are the emails flowing on this issue, I can tell you—you can be very sure we'll be explaining exactly why the Greens supported this disallowance to force the government back to the table and bring in a far more broad mandate on cash. We'll be explaining exactly why the government is not being forced back to the table, and that is the opposition completely squibbed it.