Senator BERNARDI (South Australia) (17:05): I am motivated to make a contribution to this debate because I do think it is wholly improper to be contemplating the suspension of standing orders on the spurious grounds that Senator Wong has put forward. I do so because, like many in this chamber, I have a very long memory. What goes around tends to come around, on occasion, and we should be mindful of that in considering things. I recall that significant debates on substantive issues have been truncated or stopped in this place. Something like 23 or 24 bills were guillotined immediately—or 'time managed', which is the euphemism in this place—where there was no ability for anyone to really make a contribution to a debate. I thought it was wrong then, but now we are contemplating the fact that the government wants to persist and continue with the address-in-reply—it is entirely appropriate that senators have their say on the reopening of the parliament by His Excellency the Governor-General—to explore substantive matters. Some people have had the opportunity to raise issues that they believe are important. Many on the Labor side have done that, and we have had some contributions from the Greens and the coalition. I think it is entirely appropriate to give everyone the same opportunity. Maybe that is just the innate fairness that I have within me! Perhaps there is less selfishness on this side of the chamber than on the other side, who demand that their immediate needs be met and satisfied rather than consider the health and wellbeing of the whole. If fairness is a crime, then those on this side of the chamber stand guilty of fairness—guilty as charged. We will stand against injustice on all occasions, I have no doubt about that. Senator Wong brings such strong and powerful emotions to her argument. She does it very effectively, I have to say. Senator Wong's prime motive is anything other than stifling the government's agenda. It is a political ploy; it is a political stunt. I think the Australian people will see through that very clearly. We have a circumstance where the government, quite rightly, has recalled the parliament to deal with some substantive issues that are necessary for the Australian people to determine. Senator Cameron: Where are these issues? Senator BERNARDI: Senator Cameron clearly is not aware that we have discussed the ABCC. The government wanted to re-establish the ABCC because of the systemic corruption within sections of the union movement. Senator O'Sullivan: It was never condemned. Senator BERNARDI: Those on the other side have never really condemned it, that I can recall. However, because of the intransigence of the Labor Party and their coalition allies in the Greens, we have a circumstance where the ABCC has not been able to— Senator Cameron: Mr Acting Deputy President, on a point of order: I have been misrepresented in terms of what has been argued there. I have condemned behaviour on a number of— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Seselja ): Senator Cameron, there is no point of order. That is a debating point. Senator BERNARDI: We did try to resolve that by implementing the ABCC. Due to the intransigence of those on the other side, that was not possible and the government had to recall parliament. The parliament is now scheduled to go to a double dissolution election, subject to the Prime Minister's discretion. So we have dealt with that substantive issue; and we have dealt with another substantive issue in which tens of thousands of jobs within the trucking industry—independent contractors—were under threat by a power grab from the union movement initiated by the Labor Party. So, when challenged about what substantive issues this session of parliament was dealing with, those are two significant ones. They may not be important to some on the other side, but they are desperately important to many people in two vital industries—the construction industry, which is worth billions of dollars to this country, and the trucking industry, which is also worth billions of dollars to this country and at least 50,000 potential jobs. These are the sorts of things senators on the other side conveniently ignore when they ask us what important initiatives we are discussing. That is why we should not be suspending standing orders just to indulge their hubris. We are dealing with substantive— (Time expired)