COMMITTEES

Senator BELL (New South Wales—One Nation Whip) (11:24): I'll just reiterate some of the points Senator Hanson made, because I think we need to be very clear about what's about to occur. Senator Hanson has a bill. It's gone before the Senate Standing Committee for the Selection of Bills.

Consideration of that bill was proposed to be deferred, and now the Labor Party is moving an amendment to not refer the bill, which is very, very unusual. I know a lot of what goes on here in the chamber is quite unusual to people watching, but to move an amendment to this particular report to block a bill from being referred to a committee, for the government to do that—I promise you it's very, very strange.

What's also odd is to not see more support for this inquiry from the coalition, because much of what is in the bill that Senator Hanson has put forward actually mirrors things that the coalition have put forward in their own legislation. So I really would hope that the coalition actually show up to vote. I suspect what may happen is that the Greens and Labor block Senator Hanson's bill going to committee, and perhaps we might see others absent from the chamber.

But I can tell you what is going on right now is an absolutely classic 'uniparty' stitch-up. That is what is occurring, because people in the coalition have been working with people in Labor to make sure that Senator Hanson's bill doesn't get to go to committee so we can't have that scrutiny. Why would the coalition want to work to help protect Anthony Albanese?

Isn't that fascinating? You quite often hear the coalition say: 'Well, we are here to defeat this bad Labor government. We are here to defeat the socialists.' Yet, when it suits them, they will work with the bad Labor government, with the socialists, to hurt One Nation.

I can tell you this: when it comes to defeating a bad Labor government, One Nation is the one you can trust to make sure that strange deals and games aren't played. So much of what people see in this chamber doesn't make sense, and quite often that's intentional. You'll see games played, and things get said.

But I can tell you right now it is very, very unusual for the Labor government to move a motion to block another party's bill from being referred. Senator BELL: That's alright. I'm more than happy to have conversations with my colleagues in the chamber.

Senator BELL: As you can see, members of the coalition are deeply upset that their little game is being exposed. They're deeply upset. But that will never stop us working on behalf of the people to hold this terrible Labor government to account.

And I think Senator Payman has something to say about this too. Pay attention because there are games afoot. When people say that they are here to stop the Albanese Labor government—I know I trust that lady.