Senator Eric Abetz

“This year Labor ‘decided’ to grossly and deliberately betray the Australian people and has ‘delivered’ the worst Government in Australian political history,” Senator Abetz said today.

“Rather than this year being a year of ‘decision and delivery’ as promised, this has been Labor’s year of ‘deceit and disgrace’.”

“This week, in the dying days of the Parliamentary year, Ms Gillard has contemptuously silenced the voice of all Australians by instituting a gag on the elected members of the Senate to properly debate and scrutinise her legislation.”

“Julia Gillard lied to the Australian people when she said there would be no Carbon Tax under a Government she leads, she treated them as fools and now she is doing it again.”

“In a feeble attempt to try to justify Labor’s disgraceful guillotining of legislative debate in the Senate Senator Evans told ABC 24 today that this was the “Only way to make the Government work”

This is the same Senator Evans who said in 2005 “It is our responsibility to provide an alternative view of legislation, to speak out when we think things are wrong and to fight for those people whose interests we represent.”

And…Labor Senator Nick Sherry, also in 2005, said Labor was not going to just roll over and agree to everything the Government wished to introduce into the Senate, he said “That is not the approach in a democracy.”

“It would appear that Senator Evans and Senator Sherry have had a brain snapping change of mind and that guillotining Government Bills which in their view was an affront to democracy in 2005, is now normal Labor Party practice in 2011.”

“Labor’s deliberate guillotining of the following 19 Bills through the Parliament without one minute of debate - one minute of scrutiny defines Labor’s year precisely.”

“This exposes the duplicity of the Australian Greens who connived to guillotine 19 Bills through the Senate without a single word of debate and then cut the Parliamentary year short by three days,” Senator Abetz said.

1. The Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Legislation Amendment Bill 2011
2. The Tax Laws Amendment (2011 Measures No. 7) Bill 2011 
3. The Navigation Amendment Bill 2011 
4. The Maritime Legislation Amendment Bill 2011 
5. The Crimes Legislation Amendment Bill (No.2) 2011 
6. The Aviation Transport Security Amendment (Air Cargo) Bill 2011 
7. The Veterans’ Affairs Legislation Amendment (Participants in British Nuclear Tests) Bill 2011 
8. The Protection of the Sea (prevention of pollution from Ships) Amendment (Oils in the Antarctic Area) Bill 2011 
9. The Higher Education Support Amendment Bill (No 2) 2011 
10. The Tax Laws Amendment (2011 measures No 8) bill 2011 
11. The National Residue Survey (Excise) Levy Amendment (Deer) Bill 2011 
12. The Indigenous Affairs legislation Amendment Bill (No 2) 2011 
13. The Defence Legislation Amendment Bill 2011 
14. The Auditor – General Amendment Bill 2011 
15. The Personal Property Securities Amendment (Registration Commencement) Bill 2011 
16. The Competition and Consumer Amendment Bill (No 1) 2011 
17. The Broadcasting Services Amendment (Review of Future uses of Broadcasting Services Bands Spectrum) Bill 2011 
18. The Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2011 
19. The Social Security Amendment (Student Income Support Reforms) Bill 2011