David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I start, I just want to acknowledge the Ukrainian ambassador to Australia and the delegation, who are in the Senate.

I want to start by expressing my absolute disappointment at the pointless time wasting we've seen in this place this week. We should be taking seriously the Senate's role as a house of review, here to represent our states and territories. I'm proud to represent the people of the ACT, and I urge the Senate to do better at actually engaging in issues that we face. This morning, the government denied the coalition the right to debate a bill—a bill that I fundamentally disagree with. I think what they're doing with it is awful, but I think that they have the right to actually introduce and debate a bill, and then we can vote against it, if we choose, as a Senate. We've descended into a chamber of pointless, petty politicking which seems devoid of any policy substance, and I think Australians are fed up with this. We're seeing poll after poll saying that, and it's on us to start to rebuild some of that trust and do better in this parliament.

This morning's divisions meant that many senators missed attending a Parliamentary Friends of Palestine event and hearing from MSF, ActionAid and a number of NGOs who are working over there about challenges they are facing with deregistration and what that will mean. There was a press conference with crossbench colleagues aimed at raising awareness of the massive cuts to funding of frontline family and domestic violence services and backing their calls for more support. These are the kinds of things that Australians actually want us to be talking about. Here in Canberra, DVCS are facing an $820,000 funding cut when already they can't answer one in two calls. The Canberra Rape Crisis Centre are similarly facing a 60 per cent cut in their funding. Let's deal with these issues, not this pointless politicking that we've seen in this place this week. We have to do better as— (Time expired)