Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

What hypocrisy! I apologise to the Senate but I simply cannot allow to go uncommented upon the hypocrisy we have just heard. I sat in this chamber for the last six years when the Greens continually altered the arrangements of the then government. The then government rolled over every time. Why? Because the Greens political party supported the government of the time and it was the only reason Ms Gillard was Prime Minister. To sit here for three minutes and listen to the hypocrisy that has just been spoken is breathtaking. I say to those who are new to this chamber—unless they might be moved in some way by what the previous speaker has just said—that what has happened today happened continuously in the last six years. When we would complain was there any backward step taken by the Greens political party? Absolutely not. And that was fair enough. If that was what they wanted at the time—and they had the numbers—fair enough. But to have to sit here in this chamber and hear this hypocrisy just sickens me and I cannot let it go without commenting.