Today in Parliament, Abigail delivered a scathing rebuke of the Minns Labor Government for its lack of accountability and transparency, its refusal to hand over a document the House has already voted to obtain and its dismissive and sexist treatment of four Greens women who are holding this Government to account.
Abigail said:
I support the motion moved by my colleague Dr Amanda Cohn, who all members can agree acts with integrity in this place at all times. It is hard to describe the disappointment I feel with this Labor Government. It is interesting to reflect on the moment I first felt that. Some people will say it was with the introduction of the workers compensation bill that was going to cause so much damage to people, but I think it was creeping in before that. It was the lack of accountability and transparency from this Government. Fundamentally, what really broke my faith that this Government would be anything like I thought it could be was the way that it so grotesquely used the issues between the Hon. Mark Latham and the member for Sydney for its own political purposes. It grates when Labor members make out that The Greens will not censure the Hon. Mark Latham for the grotesque comments that were made on Twitter, or X, as it is now known.
Since 5 May there have been two censure motions on the Notice Paper that The Greens would support, but this Government will not move them. It knows that The Greens will support it, but it would rather wedge us to make us look bad on a procedural issue and then claim that we will not call out other members of this place when they do the wrong thing. The Government is trying to make it about The Greens when it could bring that censure motion on today. It could have moved it last week. It could have moved it at any time. At the last minute, it moved an amendment that was technically incorrect and expected us to support it. We supported the factually correct parts. It then claims that it somehow means we are in favour of the grotesque tweet that was made, which we view as homophobic and have always stood against. But that is not what Government members are trying to do here. They are trying to play politics with other people's lives. It is disgusting. I note that although the Hon. Mark Latham and I have a civil relationship in this place at this time, we have a history in which I was daily being abused by him, in my view. I had whole motions brought against me. The Government allowed a 90-minute matter of public importance all about me, so that we could hear the Hon. Robert Borsak and the Hon. Mark Latham having a go at me. That was absolutely fine, apparently. The Government cares about sexism, racism, transphobia and homophobia only when it suits their own political games. That is why I have no faith or trust in them, and I cannot ever believe they are fit to be in government anymore. That has broken not just me but a huge number of people in the community who see it for what it is.
It really upsets me because when Government members were in opposition—particularly the Hon. John Graham and the Hon. Daniel Mookhey, who are seated at the table—we were on a unity ticket when it came to accountability. I had a lot of respect for them. I cannot believe they would carry out this media strategy, and I have to believe it is the media strategy of somebody else. But to continue to make claims against people like me and my Greens colleagues, who have done nothing but stand up for accountability in this place, is really gross. I just ask that Labor think about that. I can hear the Hon. Rose Jackson behind me, and I think she honestly believes the Government is not doing that, but I ask all Labor members to look at what it is doing. It is not okay. If Government members want us to censure the Hon. Mark Latham for the abuse of the member for Sydney, please move that motion. Instead, they moved a procedural wedge with something incorrect in it that they knew we could not agree to. They did that on purpose and it is not okay. We will never play their political games.
They need to take a long, hard look at themselves. When they talk about the progressive agenda we apparently have on today's program, that is absolutely absurd. A renewable energy bill that prioritises gas projects over batteries, wind and solar is their "progressive renewable energy bill". A bunch of other things have been on the Notice Paper for ages. We are supposed to take this hate speech bill seriously, but the whole basis for it is in a document that we are not allowed to see. It may surprise Labor members, but I do not actually want to know what happens in their Cabinet meetings. I have zero interest in their deliberations. But when it comes to documents that were prepared in relation to a particular issue that they may or may not be discussing in Cabinet, that is simply not a Cabinet-in-confidence document. If we asked people on the street if they thought a document that the Government may have referred to in its deliberations was Cabinet in confidence, they would say it is not.
Government members supported the Standing Order 52 motion for us to get the document and now, when the Premier decided it would make him look bad—or, perhaps even worse, was so arrogant as to think that no‑one else, having looked at the document, might have a better way to implement it than he has—they decided not to give it to us. As my colleague Dr Amanda Cohn so eloquently pointed out, it is about trying to keep people safe. The community has a right to see the document. They have a real interest in seeing the document. Standing in the way of it is just not okay. Government members can say all the nice things they want to—they can stand up and swing around from side to side and make it all sound very technical. But, in truth, they could and should give us the document, and then this issue would go away.
Finally, I turn to the idea of being interested in restoring the powers of the House. After the March sittings, we were approached by Labor Ministers to talk about how we could work collectively if they did not want to implement the Parliamentary Evidence Act changes and if they saw a different way of doing things. We were up for it. Wrangling The Greens member diaries is incredibly difficult; it is very hard for us to find times that we are all available. But we did that. We set up a meeting to discuss it with the Hon. Penny Sharpe and the Hon. John Graham. That meeting was changed four or five times. It was over the break, so we made ourselves available for many weeks. We kept making a new meeting and it kept getting deferred, then it finally got cancelled. So while they say that they are willing to restore the powers of the House and care about the powers of the House, they have not shown that.
People can have their own views about the disrespect that they treat the crossbench with and their willingness to overlook the work of four Greens women in this place, but I think it is quite sexist. When David Shoebridge was in this place, the Coalition Government of the day would say that the real Opposition is David Shoebridge. Now, when we have four Greens women in this House—who do such a huge amount of work, get such a lot done and make the Government look bad on a daily basis—the Premier says that it is the Hon. Mark Latham. Apparently one man with one vote is leading the four women around. Again, the Labor Government—so concerned about sexism and all the rest of it—does not call that out for what it is. Just take a look at yourselves. It is not okay. Stop playing with people's lives. Stop using the trauma and genuine hurt of other members for your own advantage. Start being straight in this place. Just deliver the document.
Read the debate in Hansard here.
28 May 2026