BUSINESS
Mr TEHAN (Wannon—Manager of Opposition Business) (12:04): I thank the Leader of the House for acknowledging that there are parts of this that we all agree with—in particular, that we leave so that those who want to can go to the War Memorial. I appreciate the fact that he's acknowledged that because it is critically important in this place that things like bipartisanship continue when it comes to things like the War Memorial, our veterans, defence et cetera.
I greatly appreciate that. That spirit is highly acknowledged. The leader also spoke about what some of these other motions are about.
What they do is bundle the uncontroversial fuel excise bill into the same motion as the controversial IR bill. The issue is that the government is hoping that no-one will notice. We just think that, once again, this is completely the wrong way to do things.
I say this because this is what the Prime Minister said as opposition leader: And I think really, people are sick of a government that has 'wedge-islation', as I call it, looking to wedge the opposition rather than legislation. I've been constructive as Opposition Leader. He also said: He doesn't have legislation.
He has wedge-islation. They sit around the Cabinet, they don't think about the national interest. They think about how can we wedge Labor on this issue?
How can we wedge Labor— everything this guy does. And then, in his first press conference as Prime Minister, he said: I look forward to leading a Government that makes Australians proud. A Government that doesn't seek to divide, that doesn't seek to have wedges, but seeks to bring people together for our common interest and our common purpose.
I think that is one of the messages that came through on Saturday. People do have conflict fatigue. Given those words by the Prime Minister himself, I move an amendment to the suspension motion moved by the Leader of the House: That paragraphs (2) and (4) be omitted.
We do this because I think the Australian people are deeply concerned about what is happening at the moment with this government. The government has made very strong commitments before an election and then seems to be doing the complete opposite after the election. I think there is a growing cynicism within the Australian people because of this.
They want to see us saying what we mean and then doing what we mean. This is just another unnecessary example of this. The government knows, when it comes to the fuel excise, that it has our support.
It was our idea, so you have our support. That's clear. So why wouldn't we just deal with that and then deal with the controversial IR bills?
It's even worse than that because the IR bills come in two parts. We are, on the whole, supportive of one of those parts, but we're not supportive of the other one. So why would you bundle it all together like this, unless you just want to be completely and utterly cynical and literally just say to the Australian people, 'We're happy to say one thing before an election and happy to do the complete opposite after the election'?
That is why we are moving the amendments to this. I thank all the Labor MPs who have sat there and listened. I'm hoping that, given what I've been able to say to you, you will now see the light, understand how important it is and all come and vote with us.
The SPEAKER: Is the amendment seconded?