Senator RUSTON (South Australia—Minister for Families and Social Services and Manager of Government Business in the Senate) (09:52): I suppose in rising today to speak on this motion I just want to express my extreme disappointment at the fact that, at the commencement of Senator Gallagher's comments, she noted the fact that the Leader of the Greens in the Senate, who moved this motion, had raised this matter with her before the matter was actually raised in this chamber. I would have thought that one of the most important conventions that exist in this place is making sure that we build everything on the basis of respect. I would like to draw to the Senate's attention that at no time prior to moving this motion this morning did the mover of the motion, the Leader of the Greens in the Senate, Senator Waters, even bother to raise this matter with me as the Manager of Government Business. Senator Waters, I have never given you any reason to suggest that I would not take seriously any request the Greens put forward. I as the Manager of Government Business have never ever done anything but engage respectfully with you, and yet you didn't think it warranted even raising this with me this morning. However, you did raise the matter with the Manager of Opposition Business in this place. I would also draw to the attention of the chamber this morning that a second action happened this morning, prior to this action, which once again was seeking to undermine the integrity and respect that I believe this place operates on and has operated on for as long as I have been here. It is disappointing that I as the Manager of Government Business had a request this morning just before the chamber opened from a senator who expressed the desire to make a contribution in relation to Remembrance Day yesterday. Given that the person who requested it had been a serving member of the Defence Force, and I know how passionately she feels about matters that relate to that, I said to the senator if she wished to make a short statement in relation to Remembrance Day I would let her do that. Instead, she did not make a statement about Remembrance Day. I think it is timely to remind everybody in this chamber the best way for us to make sure that we run a reasonable chamber is actually by having discussions. Senator Lambie interjecting— The PRESIDENT: Order! Senator Lambie, you were heard in silence. Senator RUSTON: I would draw to Senator Lambie's attention that I have always treated her with respect, and I would just like to put on the record in this place that I would really appreciate it if maybe she would treat me with some respect. We don't always have to agree. In fact, I'm quite happy for us not to agree, but a little bit of respect would go an awfully long way. In relation to the substantive motion before the chamber on changing the order of business today to facilitate a virtue-signalling stunt by the Greens, an extremely important issue for all Australians is being debated. The safety of people in workplaces is of paramount importance, and I can assure you, as a member of this government, there is nothing that we take more seriously than workplace safety and making sure that everybody has the right to feel comfortable in their workplace. That is why this government— Honourable senators interjecting— Senator RUSTON: Senator Waters has been a great advocate in relation to domestic violence. But, Senator Waters, if you were for real in relation to your actual commitment to this, you'd be working with me instead of coming in here and trying to politicise these issues. Because, as we all know, domestic violence and family violence is a particularly serious issue in the Australian economy. It absolutely devastates people's lives. It devastates families and it devastates children. We put in place the largest commitment and the largest amount of money behind domestic violence programs with the $340 million that was put behind the Fourth Action Plan. In addition, we immediately jumped to put money to support the frontline services to help women and their children who found themselves as victims of domestic violence through this COVID pandemic. I find it really quite disingenuous to have to be standing here today and, hopefully, voting down this ridiculous stunt that seeks to do nothing more than virtue signal on behalf of the Greens and puts nothing in place that's going to help Australian women in the workplace and Australian women who are victims of family and domestic violence. Instead, we are sitting here and wasting half an hour of really important time to debate really important legislation. In the last couple of seconds I just want to reinforce that we take the substantive issue very, very seriously, but we are not going to play stupid games like those at the end of the chamber. The PRESIDENT: Order, Senator Ruston.