More Senate bastardry from big parties - gave late verbal notice that 2moro they’ll gang up to PERMANENTLY REMOVE the rights of Senators to move & get a vote on issues in ‘motions’. This is deeply anti-democratic; means LibLab get to dictate issues that can be voted on! #auspol
The LibLab proposal is to replace actual votes with 2min statements. Problem is, votes are where the accountability is! Big parties want to weasel out of telling the public what their position is on issues that might be tricky/politically inconvenient. But ppl deserve to know!
Senate motions are not just an important accountability mechanism to hold parties to account (eg do you support new coal mines or not? What about 2030 targets?), they have also sparked important policy reforms. The banking royal commission: started because of a Greens motion.
The threat of LNP backbenchers crossing the floor to support the Greens motion to set up a commission of inquiry into banking misconduct forced the Govt to instead, finally, agree to a royal commission into the banks. The disability royal commission had a very similar genesis!
Motions, mostly from Greens, for many years helped build political pressure to finally deliver marriage equality. Greens motions since 2009 calling for a federal corruption watchdog similarly built pressure (and my ICAC bill passed the Senate!) - tho still waiting on Govt’s bill
And it’s not just Greens motions that have led to positive reforms. Lambie’s motions culminated in the veteran suicide royal commission. Many others have used motions to stick up for their constituents, and force political attention on issues that big parties prefer to ignore.
Motions often achieve multiparty support too: in March a Greens motion opposing the Crib Point gas import terminal received consensus of the Senate, & shortly thereafter the Vic Gov rejected the proposal. Senate motions can get things done. They’re an important part of democracy!
Axing motions means shutting down Senators’ rights to represent constituents, to put issues on the agenda the big parties want to stay silent on, &to force big parties to be honest about where they stand on policy issues. That’s an attack on democracy! By the cosy 2 party system.
Needless to say, the Greens will fight this with everything we’ve got. And we expect all crossbenchers to join us. There’s a reason the crossbench is the largest in history: ppl are sick of the lack of transparency, lack of accountability & lack of integrity of LibLab. #auspol
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
