Senator WONG (South Australia—Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) (10:13): I seek leave to move an amendment to the motion. Leave not granted. Senator WONG: Pursuant to contingent notice of motion, I move: That so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent me from moving an amendment to the motion before the chair. The PRESIDENT: Senator Wong, it is in order and you can speak. I will just clarify to the chamber that if a division occurs at the end of this debate you will need an absolute majority to win the vote on the motion. Senator WONG: I am seeking to suspend standing orders so as to move two amendments to this motion—to omit from paragraph (b) 'No. 6 Tax Laws Amendment (Combating Multinational Tax Avoidance) Bill 2015' and to omit from paragraph (e) 'Tax Laws Amendment (Combating Multinational Tax Avoidance) Bill 2015'—so that the Senate can get on with debating those bills, which have been agreed and discussed previously, but not to enable the bringing on of the dirty deal that the Australian Greens have done, because we do not believe it is in the Senate's or the taxpayer's interest to facilitate debate on what is a dirty deal done in the middle of the night, in the dead of night, by Senator Di Natale with the coalition. And I do want to go to the substance of some of the issues, because it is pretty extraordinary listening to some of the contributions from the Australian Greens in this chamber. Senator Whish-Wilson says the Greens are on the side of the angels, but they are more on the side of tax dodgers and multinational companies. The Greens are against tax transparency. In order to play themselves into the political game they have done a deal which lessens what this Senate would have insisted on in terms of tax transparency. Who would have thought? I did sit there watching Senator Di Natale as he said: 'You know, a "better than nothing" approach is what we are taking. This is better than nothing. The Labor Party want to take an all or nothing approach.' And I thought to myself, 'This is the same man who voted with Cory Bernardi and Eric Abetz some six years ago against the carbon price.' We remember that day. Senator Ian Macdonald: Mr Acting Deputy President, I raise a point of order. Could you ask the speaker to refer to senators by their correct titles? The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Williams ): I certainly will. Senator Wong, you said, 'Cory Bernardi and Eric Abetz'. Please address them by their correct titles. Continue, Senator Wong. Senator WONG: Sorry, Mr Acting Deputy President. Senator Bernardi. Then, less than two years later, they voted for an almost identical scheme with almost identical—in fact, slightly more generous—assistance to the big polluters. That was a great deal! And now they want to tell us, 'I know we once stood with all the climate sceptics against a carbon price, but today we have to compromise and take a "better than nothing" approach.' This is the new Australian Greens. Mr President—Acting Deputy President— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Thanks for the promotion, Senator! Senator WONG: The Greens are establishing a track record in this place as the party of dirty deals done dirt cheap. They pretend to their voters that they are going to come here and fight for ordinary Australians, but do you know what? They do not fight; they fold. They pretend they are holier than thou, but they end up abandoning their principles and not standing for what they believe in. How is it progressive to stitch up a deal with a conservative side of politics, to sell out the Australian taxpayer just in order to be able to say, 'We're in the game'? How is that a progressive position? This Senate had the numbers to insist on a greater level of tax transparency. That is what this Senate had. But what we have is the Australians Greens, who would rather play themselves into the game than actually stand up for what is right for Australian taxpayers, putting the interests of multinationals ahead of the interests of the Australian people. The Greens sell out the Australian people, and they do not even secure worthwhile benefits in return. They just say to Mr Abbott and Mr Turnbull, 'Pick up the phone—here we are!' This is a dirty Greens deal done dirt cheap. That is what this Greens party is under Senator Richard Di Natale. I think what we have seen is what we also see with the Greens voting with the government to try and gag debate on this amendment—that is what they did. They are the ones who always say: 'We want debate, we want debate,' but they voted for a motion where I have to suspend standing orders to move an amendment, and they will vote with them again because they do not want a debate on this issue. What we have is a Greens party who are lousy negotiators, unprincipled deal makers and, most of all, political opportunists. We know that, because all you had to do was listen to Senator Di Natale as he said, 'Oh, well, this is better than nothing.' So we ought to suspend standing orders to amend this motion, because this Senate deserves better than the dirty deal that the political opportunists at the end of the chamber have done.