The motion from Labor on Wednesday 18 October shows complete contempt for the Senate and for the people of Australia who put us in this house.

I spoke to oppose Labor’s guillotining of debate. The Family Law Act is being amended and the government is amending its own amendments, which tells us the legislation is hasty. That demonstrates even more importantly that we must have scrutiny and debate on this bill. The modern Labor party is only interested in ramming through legislation on energy, immigration and other bills impacting Australians. Meanwhile, it plans to shut down debate across the country with its censorship bill.

Prior to the election Anthony Albanese promised that his party would listen and engage in consultation. Actions speak louder than words. This is a leader in bed with the United Nations — not a leader for the people of Australia. A government worthy of respect supports such protocols as debate, scrutiny, and accountability. It respects the will of the people. The current Labor party is failing the nation on all those checks and balances. It’s a party gone rogue.

Transcript

Here we are again today with Labor proposing to guillotine debate on bills. This will come up in the formal motions. It has become Labor’s custom and practice in this chamber to guillotine debate on bills and to stop orders for the production of documents, and who helps them every time? The Greens. They say they are the masters of transparency and scrutiny, but what do they do? They guillotine debate almost every time. They guillotine debate on just about everything. 

Let’s see who else supports them. Will it be the usual cronies or will they stand up and support debate? It’s true that the Liberal motion is also setting a guillotine, but at least it restores some hours for debate, and that’s what’s fundamentally important. It’s extended until 10 o’clock tonight, thank you, and extended tomorrow before imposing a limit. The Liberals are trying to compromise. That’s why today we’re supporting their extension of hours motion and sitting late tonight.  

Here we are again with the Labor Party avoiding debate on bills that are the subject of so many amendments. The Family Law Act is being amended and the government is amending its own amendment bills—not just once, twice or three times but many times. They won’t let discussion happened on that. The fact that the Labor government is putting forward so many amendments to its own legislation shows that the legislation is hasty. That’s why we must have scrutiny of this.  

The Family Law Act has been called the slaughterhouse of the nation. It has been killing people in this country—killing families and killing kids—since 1975 when it was introduced by the Labor Party following UN policy. That is a fact. There have been 48 years of the slaughterhouse of the nation thanks to Lionel Murphy and the Labor Party. Now they are introducing bills to make it even more complex. They won’t allow scrutiny of that complexity. What are they hiding? 

We also see that other parties, including my own, have got a significant number of amendments in this chamber. We’re not even allowed to discuss our own amendments or explain our own amendments. What kind of democracy is that? What kind of scrutiny is that? What kind of responsibility is that? 

Look at the two migration bills. Think of the impact on housing. We will be getting 1.2 million new arrivals in this country this year. Where are they going to sleep—under what roof and in what bed? What will that do to the cost of housing and the cost of rent in this country? Labor at the same time is invoking UN 2050 net-zero policies, which are raising the cost of living dramatically. We have high inflation raising the cost of living dramatically. Housing is going up, and they want to bring in more people. We have a lottery, a ballot. Energy prices and inflation—they won’t allow scrutiny of this.  

Instead of consulting properly in the first place, the government has chosen to put forward poor legislation and just ram it through. The Labor Party need to start doing what Anthony Albanese promised as opposition leader and start listening and consulting, not walking with their ears closed and ramming through legislation. Didn’t you learn from last Saturday? The disinformation and misinformation bill will shut down debate. Not only do you want to shut down debate here but you want to shut down debate right across the country. That’s the modern Labor Party for you.  

This is not how the Senate is supposed to work. The Senate is supposed to be the house of review on behalf of the people. We were elected to represent the people and to debate issues for the people. We’re not their masters; we serve them. This is the people’s house, and Australians expect their senators to give each piece of legislation careful, extensive and respectful scrutiny. The motion from the Labor Party this afternoon shows complete contempt yet again for the Senate and for the people of Australia who put us in this House and who we are supposed to serve. Labor promised consultation and listening, yet, in practice, shows us Labor does not even know what those words mean.