Senator REYNOLDS (Western Australia) (15:20): I too rise to take note of Minister Nash’s answers to questions today. I said two days ago in this place that I had never been prouder of Minister Nash, and that is even more the case now. I am utterly ashamed of the tactics of those opposite in this matter over the last four days, and I’d like to go through exactly what those opposite have done this week. They have asked 17 questions of Minister Nash over the last four question times. It is absolutely their right to do that, but it is the way they do it and the nastiness and meanness of the intent of this. You can have a look at the questions. Every single day, that very smart and very nasty Labor tactics team have sat down and worked out, ‘How do we get her today?’

What they did on Tuesday was ask Senator Nash five questions in a row, and they were very cunning: ‘How do we try to make the minister lose her cool? How can we make her look bad? How can we get under her skin? We’ll just ask the same question over and over and over again’—questions that Minister Nash answered on 17 August in great detail and that the Attorney-General reinforced on 18 August. So, this is their cunning plan. They had five female senators in this place, one after the other, who got up—Senators O’Neill, Kitching, Pratt, Collins and Bilyk—all asking the same nastily intentioned questions of the minister. The minister was calm, she was graceful and she answered those questions with great dignity. That was Tuesday.

The day before that, they did exactly the same thing. On the Monday, they had Senator Moore to Senator Nash, and Senators McAllister and Polley asking the same questions again, which were repeated five times on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday the Labor tactics team had this bright idea: ‘Maybe we’ll ask her some questions that are so obscure, one after the other, that she won’t be able to answer the questions. We can question her integrity and what else she’s doing or what she doesn’t know.’ So, on Wednesday there were questions not only within her portfolio but outside of her portfolio—five questions again, not seeking in any genuine way to get answers to these questions; it was all about ganging up and being completely horrid to a minister who has done absolutely nothing wrong. She has done absolutely the right thing. She’s entitled to be here. Nobody except the Labor Party is suggesting that she is not entitled to be here as a minister. It is only those opposite.

Senator Whish-Wilson: We are!

Senator REYNOLDS: And the Greens as well—I’ll take that interjection. She is absolutely entitled to be here. The Solicitor-General has provided advice, and I would remind those in the chamber that his advice was spot on, as we saw today in relation to the same-sex marriage plebiscite.

So, that was Wednesday. And what did that cunning, nasty Labor tactics team do again today? ‘Well, let’s do what we did yesterday.’ While we’ve got North Korea, high energy prices and other things facing this nation, for four days in a row they thought, ‘Let’s gang up on Fiona Nash, because we haven’t quite beaten her up enough.’ Again, there were four questions to her about regional grants, something that it is completely hypocritical for the Labor Party to ask about, because they absolutely, as the minister said, rorted that scheme. There was no pretence of accountability. You’ve done that four times in a row. All of you should be ashamed.

Another thing I would point out is that I absolutely know that women on this side would never, ever dream of ganging up. If a woman on any side of this chamber were in the situation that Senator Nash is in, we would not think it okay to get together and gang up on another woman just because we’re women.

You imagine if we on this side did that to anybody on the other side of this chamber! It would be a national disgrace and a scandal. The fact that the Labor Party—and the Greens—think it is okay to treat a minister of this state in this way, and do it in a way that is directly relevant to her gender, is an absolute disgrace. Nobody else in this place, or even in the media, may have called it out but the tactics are very clear. It makes me utterly ashamed. Again, I’m very, very proud of Senator Nash, who you have mercilessly hounded this week. She has not even raised a sweat, and for that I am very proud to be not only a colleague of hers but also a friend.