Senator JOYCE (Queensland—Leader of the Nationals in the Senate) (10.27 am)—It seems interesting that the Labor Party’s approach now to the Senate is to become mercenary belligerent and arrogant. It has not taken very long for the Labor Party to change. It has not taken very long for them to put aside any desire of reasonable working hours, the said decency in working hours as put forward by Senator Brown. The Labor Party insist that they are going to try and pursue this case, even though they are getting thousands of emails telling them that the Australian people want this investigated.
The Australian people do want the appropriate policy response, but they do not acknowledge that the appropriate policy response is Minister Wong’s or Kevin Rudd’s appropriate policy response. In fact, that is not the only policy that is before us. We can look at a whole range of things, but the Labor Party, belligerent and arrogant as they have become, are going to try to bulldoze this through. They will vote for us to sit here forever because that is the new approach of the Labor Party. That is the type of party the Labor Party has become. And when they talk about a Faustian bargain, you sign a Faustian bargain as soon as you join the Labor Party because either you agree with them or you are kicked out. That is the only position they have in the Labor Party. Every time you sign up to the Australian Labor Party, you sell your soul.
The PRESIDENT—Senator Joyce, wait a moment. You are entitled to be heard in silence. On my right: silence! Order!
Senator JOYCE—This chamber will do its job in reviewing and amending legislation, and it will have the appropriate time and will follow the appropriate process. What we currently have with the Australian Labor Party is the $8.5 billion in extra costs and the $5.5 billion in savings from households, a $14 billion turnaround. They want to bulldoze that through. They do not want anybody to look at it. They do not want this Senate to do its job in reviewing and amending legislation and representing the rights of the people in determining how their money is spent. They know that the jig is up on the ETS, because the Australian people have seen through it. If they want to show the Australian people just how arrogant they have become, if they want to show the Australian people just how duplicitous they have become, if they want to show the Australian people how they are willing to put aside the aspirations that are overwhelmingly seen in polls, where 60 per cent of people want a delay till after Copenhagen—but the Australian people want the appropriate policy response. They do not agree that this is appropriate and they do not agree that this is good for our nation.
It is now the Labor Party against the world—the Labor Party against the Liberal Party, the National Party, the Greens and the independents. But the Labor Party believe that they are the benevolent source of information, even though they brought this deal and are trying to ram it through with this belligerent, arrogant response. Correct me if I am wrong: you intend for us to sit here nonstop. Is that right or is that wrong? The silence is deafening.
The PRESIDENT—Address your comments to the chair.
Government senators interjecting—
The PRESIDENT—Do not respond to Senator Joyce’s invitation to interject. It is disorderly. Senator Joyce, just address the chair.
Senator JOYCE—I find the people who have found themselves sitting next to Senator Cameron have started talking like Senator Cameron and are completely inaudible. We will be voting to get appropriate hours for the deliberation of what is the most immense piece of legislation with the most diametrical outcome for the Australian economy. This is a discussion about what the economic ramifications to our nation are from this ridiculous proposition that has been put forward by the Labor Party and lauded as the only policy response. When people tell you that their policy response is the only policy response, you are talking to a completely arrogant, belligerent, duplicitous and out-of-touch government.