Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care) | Hansard source

I seek leave to move an amendment to the urgency motion moved by the Greens. (Quorum formed)

Leave not granted.

Per the notice standing in the name of the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent me from moving an amendment to the motion.

We saw yesterday another example of how easily the Greens, at the other end of the chamber, can be bought, and I genuinely feel sorry for Senator Steele-John, who has been working so hard on this NDIS issue, as he actually got rolled. Quite frankly, the decision yesterday to do a dirty deal of which the Leader of the Government in the Senate said 'the terms of the agreement'—they're quite happy to admit that there was an agreement between the Labor Party and the Greens to move some of the most substantial and egregious tax increases to Australians. The Greens were prepared to provide their support for that in return for an extension to a committee inquiry into the NDIS bill that they know that they are still going to vote against.

While we're standing here today under a guillotine that has been conjured up in the terms of the agreement between the Labor Party and the Greens to do a dirty deal on these tax changes that are going to see Australians paying more and more tax, we have got a situation where the NDIS bill, which we know the Greens have said they will not be supporting—let's be clear here. Nothing will change between now and when this bill comes back in a couple of months time. Why can't this bill be dealt with now? We have sought, through many means, to have this bill dealt with simply because why can't certainty be provided to Australians in relation to this bill?

If I thought that the Greens decision to have this bill, the NDIS bill, further investigated was going to change anything, then we would have a completely different situation, but nothing is going to change. You're still going to vote against this bill, so why don't you just give some certainty to all of the Australians who, right now, do not know what is going on? Force the government to actually go into committee on this bill—going to committee on a bill, that would be a novel thing!—that actually matters to the Australian public and actually tell Australians what you are intending to do on the NDIS bill.

Today, we have a motion here that's been put forward by Senator McKim in relation to the NDIS. If you are so concerned about this particular issue, why didn't you put it in your dirty deal that you did with the Labor Party yesterday? You're not particularly good negotiators if all you got out of your deal with the government in relation to this were these absolutely egregious tax changes that they told the Australian public, over 50 times before the last election, they weren't going to bring in. Why didn't you get it negotiated? It just goes to show how incredibly poor your negotiation skills are, and poor Senator Steele-John is the one who has to wear it.

Why don't you just allow us to get on with it? Why don't you allow us to get on with it and get some scrutiny? Today, we tried to get scrutiny on the bills in relation to the tax changes that you're going to make, but, no, you all ganged up and didn't allow any scrutiny. You wouldn't let us go into committee today on the tax bills. So if you really are genuine about doing what you have all said you came into this place for—which was to provide greater transparency, greater accountability and greater scrutiny—why won't you let the Australian public be able to see what is going on with these two incredibly important bills? 'No, we're much happier to just do dirty deals behind closed doors.'

The reason why it was important for us to suspend on this is that I think that there has to be some sunlight shone on the fact that the two parties that sit on the other side of this chamber are prepared to completely trash the conventions of this chamber that have stood the test of time. You have got no control of the chamber unless you gang up. You deny Australians the opportunity to see what's going on with a bill as important as the NDIS bill and the tax bills. You deny Australians from having the line of sight to hold you accountable for what you're about to do and what you've done in the last two days. You deny Australians the opportunity to have us, on this side of the chamber, scrutinise what you are doing.

The thing that probably is the most laughable about what we have seen happen in the last 24 hours is that the Greens have rolled over on some of the most serious tax increases to the Australian public that we have seen in generations and in the process of doing that have failed to get anything at all for their efforts, apart from an extension on a bill that they're not going to change their position on, no matter how long it stands out there for.