Motion: No Adjournment: Electoral Bill

MOTION:

‘NO ADJOURNMENT: ELECTORAL BILL’.

Wednesday, 3 June 2026.

Mr NEWBURY (Brighton) (11:37):

What the government are trying to do today is ram through their rigged laws, and you can see that is all it is. They know these laws do not stack up, but they also know that the beneficiary is Labor. Labor is the beneficiary of these laws – and I get why they are doing it. They are wrong, but I get why they are doing it. Do you know why? Because they are sinking. This Government is end of days. I do not know which one of you briefed that out yesterday, but with ‘end of days’ you were bang on. You can see these dodgy, rigged laws.

And I welcome the Premier into the Chamber. I am glad the Premier is here and I can say it directly: these laws will not stand up, Premier –

The ACTING SPEAKER (Daniela De Martino): Manager of Opposition Business, order! Through the Chair.

James NEWBURY: It is shameful. This ramming through of these laws is shameful. And we just asked, led by the Leader of the Nationals, a very simple question: are these laws so rushed that they may not even stack up in their ability to be debated?

If you turn to the statement of treaty compatibility, the First Peoples’ Assembly were not even consulted. The moral superiority of Labor on treaty – it drips from them.

Members interjecting.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Daniela De Martino): Order! I am on my feet. There is too much audible noise. I can barely hear, which is extraordinary. Everyone else just needs to be quieter, please. Thank you.

James NEWBURY: Thank you, Acting Speaker, and I say again: this Government has breached treaty with these proposed laws. Can you believe they have breached treaty? The moral superiority that comes from that side of the Chamber over treaty and for introducing treaty compatibility into their proposed legislation – they could not have been more chuffed. It dripped off them. And to see them being forced to admit – which is why we have asked the Speaker whether the statement associated with these proposed laws even stacks up.

I am looking forward to the Speaker reporting back to the house on whether the statement of treaty compatibility is even a legitimate statement, because it is a legislative requirement that they provide it. As they say in this statement:

The First Peoples’ Assembly … was not given an opportunity to advise on the Bill …

Where is your moral superiority now, Labor? Very, very quiet.

This Bill rigs the system for Labor. We have said consistently, despite the Leader of the House’s meaningless attempts, that we support a strong system, we support a transparent system, we support bans on foreign money. But what we also support as a point of principle is constitutionally valid laws. When it comes to these proposed laws, the Government said at the get-go, ‘We will negotiate with you, but we will not negotiate on any part of the proposed laws that deal with the constitutionality.’ We said, ‘Well, guys, you got it wrong. The High Court said you got it wrong, so we need to consider a set of laws that are constitutional,’ and the Government said, ‘No’.

What they wanted to talk about was only a small fraction of the proposed laws. We took the view, and I certainly took the view very early on, that it was a sham and this Government had no interest in making these laws constitutional. What were they focused on when I was talking about things like caps with the Government? Direct quote: ‘The West Party matter’s success and not having high caps so that the West Party would not be a threat.’ That was what this Government was focused on – not the constitutionality of the bill but their electoral fortunes.
This tips taxpayers money into Labor’s coffers. It is an outrageous attempt today to ram this Bill through. It will be seen by the broader community as such. I know it will.

We will never support what Labor is seeking to do so disgracefully now.